


My Love

by R_Sublett



Series: It's the 80's [2]
Category: Smosh, Smosh Games, Smosh Pit
Genre: College AU, F/F, F/M, M/M, Smosh Games - Freeform, Smosh Pit - Freeform, im literally so pumped, smosh - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-06-13 20:39:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 30,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15372873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_Sublett/pseuds/R_Sublett
Summary: The year is 1981 and half of Shayne's friends are back in LA while the others are with him in NYC for college. He's finally able to be with his boyfriend freely in this new city, and will also discover some new things about himself along the way.





	1. New York City

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I know that Who Knew was a pretty big hit so here comes round two! It's been a whole year since I've visited this fic but it's also been a whole year for these characters! I really hope you enjoy this story!

The year was 1981 and it was Shayne Topp’s first day of college. His palms were already getting sweaty and his hands were shaking as he buttoned his white dress shirt and slid on the navy blue sweater his mother had bought him as a gift so he could have nice new clothes for college. He tucked the dress shirt into his gray slacks and rifled through his backpack to make sure he had all his materials for the day. His back held all the needed notebooks that he already labeled, his pencil box, and the last thing he would need was his packed lunch that sat in the refrigerator in the kitchen. Shayne took a couple of deep breaths to calm his nerves as he felt his anxiety start to rile up in the pit of his stomach.  
“Looking sharp!” Damien chirped from behind him. Shayne turned around and saw Damien’s freshly shaven face and nicely trimmed haircut that he had recently gotten. On the bridge of his nose were his new glasses as well, he had to get them shortly after high school had ended and complained about them frequently but Shayne didn’t mind the large aviator style eyeglasses that were on his boyfriend’s face. Shayne thought they made him look even cooler.  
“Y-You don’t look to bad yourself.” Shayne stammered as he was still a little flustered from Damien’s comment. They had been dating for almost two years now but yet he still got choked up around the brunette. Shayne carded his fingers through his hair one last time to make sure it looked perfect and straightened his collar for what seemed like the billionth time. Damien picked up on his boyfriends nerves and cradled the blonds face in his hands.  
“Hey, it’s going to be okay! You have the same English 101 class with Lily so you can sit next to her and before that you have creative writing, and you love creative writing so it’s going to be just fine!” Damien reassured. Shayne nodded and pressed a chaste kiss to the palm of Damien’s hand, then they both walked out into the small kitchen of the two bedroom apartment that the boys shared with Boze.  
It was Boze’s first day as well and she was more than excited to start attending LIM for marketing and design. She bought what felt like thousands of sketchbooks and art supplies, along with several journals that all went into a nice book bag that she had splurged on. She was incredibly excited to get a fresh start and make some new friends in New York.  
A little less than half of the team was now across the country attending school in New York City. Sohinki and David were attending Columbia University on great scholarships thanks to the boarding school they had attended their senior year. Shayne, Damien, Olivia, and Lily Marston were all going to NYU for various majors, and Boze was attending LIM while Joslyn Davis was attending FIT for fashion design. David and Sohinki lived on campus for their school while Shayne, Damien, and Boze were all renting out a small apartment together. The other three girls, Olivia, Joslyn, and Lily, were also renting out an apartment together a few blocks away which was convenient.  
“Excited for your first day Damien?” Boze asked as she prepared her lunch that she was taking to school with her. Boze was all dressed up in a light orange and white turtle neck sweater and a knee length gray skirt that was paired with penny loafers. She looked absolutely stunning and very different from what she wore in high school. But the boys thought it was a nice change to see her come out of her shell.  
“You betcha.” Damien replied with a smile. Shayne admired his boyfriend who was just dressed in a casual plain white t-shirt and classic 501 Levis, he always had a way to make the most casual clothing look so nice on him all the time. “I’m going to kick finance’s ass and become the best financial planner to ever exist after all of this!” He said enthusiastically. Boze just finished prepping the lunches and handed the boys their food. She checked her watch and saw that she better bead towards the subway so she could make it to school in time. The boys took this as their que to leave as well.  
On their way to the subway station they met up with Joslyn, Lily, and Olivia who were all dressed up for their first day of school. Shayne smiled at Olivia widely and joined her as they all walked with one another. Damien was making loud conversation with Joslyn as they discussed something they had seen in the papers and Lily was complimenting Boze’s outfit. Over their senior year, Olivia and Shayne had grown pretty close and Shayne knew that Olivia was relatively upset at the moment due to the fact that her relationship with Courtney was on hold for the moment considering they were both all the way across the country from one another.  
“Doin okay?” Shayne asked while nudging her shoulder. Olivia merely shrugged and gave him a faint smile. Both of them knew that everything was going to be okay and that Courtney and Olivia would get back together eventually, but all they had at the moment were letters that took forever to mail and expensive phone calls. Shayne smiled back at his friend and gave her a small side hug to make her feel just a little better.  
The city of New York bustled around the small group of teens as they continued to speak in excitement about their first days at college. When they got to the station Joslyn and Boze had to go their separate ways and the other four all boarded the subway together. Shayne took a seat next to Damien who held his hand tightly in reassurance and Shayne continued to repeat his schedule for the entire week in his head.  
Today was monday which meant an 8 AM class on creative writing that went until nine o’clock and he had that class every monday through wednesday. Then at ten he had his English 101 class that went until eleven thirty and he had that class every monday, wednesday, and friday. After that he was done for the day and planned on going out with Lily for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow after creative writing he had his mandatory gym class which was swimming and that went from noon till one and he would have that on tuesdays and thursdays.  
Damien nudged Shayne out of his thoughts to tell him that they had reached their stop. The four teens all stepped out of the train and ran up the subway steps and walked the small distance till they reached their campus. They all said goodbye to one another and went their separate ways. Shayne headed to the building that his creative writing class was in and was absolutely itching for this day to begin.

+++

“So, how was creative writing?” Lily asked as she took a seat next to Shayne. Shayne smiled widely at her and showed her all the notes he had taken. Her eyebrows rose and nodded as a response, happy that Shayne was happy because she knew how much he had been stressing about his first day of college. The class soon began and both were already sucked in to the world of English 101. They took notes at a furious pace, terrified to miss anything, and laughed at all the jokes the professor would make. While a part of Shayne missed his old english class with Joe, he was still excited for this whole new experience away from home and in a brand new city with a bunch of his friends.  
After the class ended, Lily and Shayne decided to take a walk down to central park so they could eat the lunches they had packed for themselves. Neither had really gotten a chance to explore the city all that much because all they had been doing was apartment hunting and buying cheap furniture to put in said apartment. However the group did plan on going on a group outing to really see what the city had to offer on friday night, so Shayne looked forward to that very much.  
“So what do you think you like the most?” Lily asked as she ate her salad Joslyn had made for her. She winced at how much greens Joslyn had put in and the only thing in her thermos was water instead of Dr. Pepper. She made a mental note to maybe start packing her own lunches so Joslyn wouldn’t go so haywire next time.  
“I dunno,” Shayne said as he shrugged his shoulders, “Everything so far has been amazing. Creative writing has been so fun already and on Wednesday is my class on film studies so that’s exciting and I’m looking forward to that. I also like how cool of a city New York is even though I haven’t seen a whole lot of it and it’s kind of nice to be away from LA, even though it’s a pretty great city.” Lily nodded at his statement and plucked through her salad.  
“The freedom is really nice.” She said through a mouthful of greens. “But who knows what’s coming next, right?”


	2. LA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys sorry for not posting last night. I've been absolutely exhausted from work and yesterday I spent the entire day at my cities annual pride parade and festival. But from what I've seen so far this fic is already seeming like it's a hit which is great and I'm so glad you guys are liking it! Thank you for almost fifty hits for just one chapter! They mean so much to me!

Courtney took a deep breath and looked in the mirror. It was her first day at the Southern California Health Institute where she would study to become a nurse. She knew Olivia had already had her first day at NYU the day before, the spoke briefly over the phone about it but they couldn’t talk for very long because of how expensive phone calls could get so quickly. She flattened out her floral blouse and solid color skirt and ran her fingers through her hair one last time to make sure it was big and wavy like always.   
She wondered what it was like over there in New York City, all the tall buildings and millions of people. LA was still a large city but Courtney couldn’t help but wonder what all her friends were up to. A part of her was sad that she chose to stay in Cali, if she had gone to New York she could’ve been with Olivia and the others but it’s not like she didn’t have friends here in LA. They were planning on hanging out this upcoming weekend, playing a small game of frisbee, and going to the diner as usual. Even then, it would still feel a little off with almost half the team being gone.   
Pushing those thoughts aside, Courtney straightened up the apartment she shared with her sister, said goodbye to Kari, and hopped in her car so she could take the thirty minute drive to her campus. She was still a little nervous however, none of her friends were going to the same school as her so it would be like high school all over again and she would have to socialise on some degree. 

+++

Noah and Keith were jamming to an AC/DC tape in their car as they drove to the LA Community College campus. Both were excited and a little nervous for what was in store, all new classes, all new people, it was truly an exciting time. Both were also now renting out a tiny apartment together and were happy to be out of their parent’s houses for the time being, even if they only lived ten minutes away. Keith was all dressed up in an oversized blue blazer, a pair of tailored slacks, and a turtle neck along with one of his signature wide brimmed hats and fancy new sunglasses. Noah however was starting to go through a bit of a punk phase. His hair was fading out of its previous neon orange, pink, and green colors, he was wearing aviators and a cut off band t, dark washed denim jeans, and an old pair of chucks.   
Neither of them really knew what they were planning on doing for their futures which is why they were attending the LA Community College. No point in wasting money on a big fancy school if you had no clue what you were doing with your life. So both were just taking some of the introductory courses that would show them an array of career options for their first semester and hopefully by the second half of the year they would know what to do.  
When they pulled into the parking lot both got out of Keiths new car, well rather old car. Damien had let Keith borrow his old 1970 AMC Gremlin that was neon green with a black hood because he would no longer be needing it for the time being because he was now living in NYC. However if Damien happened to be in town he would get his car back. But it still thrilled Keith and Noah to no end that they had a car to use, and Damien knew it was in good hands.   
“We’re going to fucking kill it this year!” Noah said excitedly as he walked towards the front doors and adjusted his backpack. Keith smiled and nodded his head as he tried to keep up with his best friend. 

+++

Tanner stepped out of his truck and closed the door after he had grabbed his backpack. His parents had chipped in to help buy him a barely used 1980 Ford pickup because they were so proud of their son for getting such a great scholarship to LA City College. Tanner however was more nervous than ever. He loved photography but what if he found out that he was actually terrible at his passion in the eyes of his professors. Not only that, the majority of his friends were attending pretty fancy colleges for some pretty fancy things. While he was proud of them, he couldn’t help but feel a little self conscious.   
His girlfriend, Sarah, was over attending CalArts which was a little over thirty minutes away but it was still different being at a different school from her for once. He and Sarah had been best friends for as long as he could remember and started dating just before junior year. However in the previous summer they had gotten a little more serious, which Tanner didn’t mind at all, but it did make him miss her a little more.   
On top of that none of his friends in LA weren’t really attending any of the same schools. The other half of his friends who were in New York were for the most part attending NYU, but Tanner didn’t really have anyone in LA City College. His mother told him that things would work out just fine, he was going to see his friends almost every week which was true, and he was never bad at making friends in the first place. But if things did go south and he had a horrible first day Tanner had already made plans with Flitz, who had just started working as an AC repairman.  
“Just remember, I don’t know anyone at my school either so we’re in the same boat.” Sarah had said over the phone the night before. Her words helped calm Tanner a little bit. “And besides, next year when we have some more cash we can get an apartment together or something, that way we don’t have to live at home anymore.” Tanner liked the idea of them having an apartment together quite a bit and the extra hours he had been putting in at the diner would hopefully get him to that point financially sooner rather than later. 

+++

Prestigious.   
Ian felt like an absolute fraud as he slipped on his Stanford hoodie his mother had purchased for him to wear on his first day. He had gotten into one of the top schools in the nation and on top of that was rooming with his best friend yet at the same time he felt like a fraud. How did he even get into this school and could he even survive the upcoming year ahead? He was majoring in statistics after all and even though he was good at statistics they could still be incredibly challenging sometimes, and that was just on a high school level.  
“It’s going to be okay dude don’t worry! I’ve got a couple of friends that are going to be in the same classes as you so it’ll be okay.” Anthony said. Ian felt lucky that he had Anthony because Anthony had already gone through the awkward college freshman phase because he had graduated high school early therefore attended college early. So he was giving him some great pointers on what to do and what not to do, as well as introduce him to a couple of people.   
“One of my buddies has a friend named Pamela who is going to be in your introductory math class with you and he says that she’s super cool!” Anthony said excitedly. He was walking Ian to his first class just to ease his nerves a little bit. “He said she likes comics like you do and loves video games so I think you’ll get along well. Oh, and she’s single.” Anthony casually slipped in.  
“Are you already trying to set me up on my first day here?” Ian asked.  
“What? That’s ridiculous! I would never!” Anthony said in feigned refusal. Ian rolled his eyes as they approached the classroom. “But that is her right there with the short dark brown hair and glasses, have a good first day bye!” Anthony said as he shoved Ian into his first class and ran away, hoping that Ian would take the hint and sit next to the girl that was totally perfect for him.  
Ian huffed and straightened up his hoodie, then looked up to see the girl Anthony was talking about. She was the prettiest girl he had ever seen and she was looking back at him too with a small smile. He took a seat next to her and realised that maybe this whole situation wasn’t so bad after all.


	3. Zakynthos

Mari awoke to the sound of soft waves lapping against the sandy shore. Sunlight streamed through the slightly opened tent flap which made her flutter her eyes open and roll to the other side of the tent. She meant to snuggle into Wes’s side a bit more but she was left with empty, cold sheets atop the air mattress they had been sharing. Brushing the hair on her face aside she sat up and looked around the rather large tent that she and Wes had splurged on (it cost them over one hundred dollars but was meant for four people and could fit a twin size air mattress comfortably and both of them could stand up perfectly straight in it) and she was left with nothing. Slipping out of bed, she rebraided her hair and threw on her bikini top and shorts and stepped outside.   
She sun was already shining brightly and her skin proved it. She came to Europe already with a dark tan but ever since she and Wes had been there all summer her tan darkened and even Wes of all people had a tan. In fact, as she looked at him from behind as he sat on the white sand beach of Zakynthos, Greece; he almost looked unrecognisable. Of course she had adjusted to the change but if any of their other friend had seen Wes at the moment they would be shocked.   
Once senior year had finished and everyone graduated, Wes and Mari committed to UCLA but planned on taking a gap year before heading off to college. The bought a large tent, backpacking equipment, and minimal clothing and quite a bit of cash and they had been traveling freely around Europe all summer. First they started in Spain, then they went to France for a bit and traveled the countryside, they stayed in Berlin for two days after that, then camped in southern Italy, and now they were on the island of Zakynthos where the sand was white, the sun was always shining, and the water was forever perfectly clear and blue.  
Wes of course had stopped dying his hair ever since they had gotten to Europe and after multiple haircuts he was finally back to his normal brown hair. On top of that it was now short, like Damien’s had always been and his fringe hung in his eyes a bit and the ends were a little sun bleached but the sides were pretty short. His skin was now tanned as well, darker than olive which was so different from its usual paleness. He looked like he had been living in Greece all his life.   
Mari’s hair has grown out as well. It was no longer purple but back to being black with sun bleached ends as well from all the salt water she had been swimming in. They showered every other day at the public showers the beach offered but they never really got dirty. The ocean was always so crystal clear and beautiful, an absolute paradise. They had been on the island just under a week and didn’t know where they would be going next.  
Travel was never really a problem. Both had come with most of their savings but it’s not like they spent much of it anyways. The most they spent was always on the postcards they would send to their friends and family back home, but even that was not expensive. They always shopped at local markets for their food our just foraged or fished for it themselves. A lot of the times they would just make friends with the locals who would invite them over for dinner and sometimes even allow them to stay a night. Both were pretty confident they wouldn’t have to ask for their parents to send money by the end of their gap year considering they now had train cards which helped them travel.  
Mari admired Wes from behind as he was sprawled out on the sand, sunning his already dark body. He was just wearing a pair of his swim trunks which were European styled and much shorter than the ones typically worn in America. Wes had to get over that pretty quickly when he arrived because the one thing he forgot to pack were his swim trunks and this was the only thing they had to offer once they got to Italy, that or a speedo.   
Because of all the hiking and ocean swimming the two had been doing, on top of eating so healthy aside from the occasional gelato they had, his muscles were much more defined. He was stronger now but also a little leaner than he was when they left LA. Yup, if any of their old friends had seen him now they would not have recognised him at all. But Mari didn’t really mind. She had looked different as well. More toned muscle, different hair, tanned skin. However her change wasn’t as jurassic as Wes’s was. If anything she just looked relatively similar to how she looked in ninth grade when her hair was black and she still had her ballet body. She was thinking about going back to ballet just a little bit but was waiting to tell Wes about it in case it wasn’t a serious feeling.  
“You gonna keep staring or are you gonna join me?” Wes murmured, breaking Mari out of her daydream. He peaked one eye open to look at her and she joined him on the sand. The second she had laid down he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her small body atop of his and pressed a kiss to her collar bone. His huge hands raked against her small waist as she pressed her hands to his chest.  
“How’d you sleep?” She asked just loud enough for him to hear. His eyes were closed again but she knew he was listening.   
“Just fine, perfectly. I woke up to watch the sunrise but I couldn’t bare to wake you up with me. You seemed tired after last night's… events.” Wes toyed. Mari slapped his chest lightly and then proceeded to kiss his lips with a tender passion. “I love you.” Wes whispered into the kiss.  
“I love you too.” Mari whispered back. She eventually got up from their spot in the sand and waded into the crystal clear ocean, Wes following close behind. She rested on her back, floating atop the water as Wes treaded water beside her, looking out onto the horizon. “Do you wonder what they’re doing over there?” Mari asked after a while.  
“Well I think school is starting this week.” Wes said softly as he watched his girlfriend smile as she was soaking up the sun like a sponge. “I’m sure they’re all fine. I know the team is a little split up at the moment but they’ll probably get together for Christmas or something like that so it will be okay. I don’t think distance will cause any problems.” Wes reassured. He knew Mari had a small fear that whenever they returned home to LA from Europe that no one would be talking any more and instead drifted apart. But while that was just a small fear both knew that was completely unreasonable, the team was more than just a team; they were best friends.   
After a couple hours of swimming, they eventually dried off and took a quick shower and headed into town. Wes bought some bread for the two of them along with some tomatoes, wine, and cheese for them to eat. They met with an elderly couple in town that they had befriended and ate lunch with them, then went on a long walk around the island as the sun set. As it neared night time they returned back home to the beach where Mari set up a campfire and they cooked the fish Wes had caught the night before. They ate it with their items they had gotten at the marketplace, drank all the wine, and were soon a little tipsy.   
Music played from the portable radio that had brought along. It was some popular Italian jazz song that was slow and melodic. Mari persuaded Wes into slow dancing with her as the fire dyed down and as they swayed and the eerie night sky showed beautiful stars.   
Wes thought about how much he had changed since he had come to Europe and it had only been one summer so he wondered what would come next. He even had to admit that now when he really looked into the mirror he didn’t really look like his old self at all but someone entirely new that still had the essence of Wes. He still liked the old things he used to enjoy such as comic books, frisbee, and metal music but now he found himself having an appreciation for jazz. He now knew some French, Italian, and was now learning Greek. He had a finer taste in food instead of just ice cream, he was starting to like his natural hair color again and loved the beach more than he ever had before. Silence was no longer foreign to him but peaceful. He and Mari would open up to each other quite a bit now which helped him realise things about himself he had never thought before.   
Wes was different physically but also emotionally and mentally. But he also knew that with this difference came growth. He had matured much more than he ever thought he could and was confident in things like his body and emotions. And he absolutely loved it.


	4. Saturday Adventures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the support you guys have given me so far! It's amazing that this story had over 100 hits already and thank you to all who post comments and give kudos, they mean the absolute world to me!

Shayne smiled as he looked at the postcard that was addressed to him. It had arrived in the mail that afternoon and was a beautiful picture of the Italian countryside. Wes and Mari had spent a few weeks there, they had been getting a long string of Italian postcards in a row, and the message written on the back was written by Wes. He spoke about how Italy was beautiful but they were both ready for a change and heard about the island of Zakynthos from one of the locals and planned on camping out there for a while. He also talked about how unrecognizable he was starting to look and he would try and send a photo sometime soon so the others wouldn’t forget what he looked like. Mari had also scribbled a small message to Shayne wishing him a good year at college and how she hoped to see him and the others at Christmas time.   
He tucked away the postcard in a lovely wooden box that he placed under his bed. It was his keepsake box, his mother had gotten him into the habit of it when he was a little boy, and even bought him a much nicer, fancier box when he moved out to New York. She said that this new chapter in his life deserved a brand new box. It was made out of cherry wood and was nicely polished and even had his initials painted in sparkly gold paint on the corner of the box. So far the contents of the box were the various postcards Wes and Mari had sent, some polaroids of him and Damien at one of Wes’s parties they always had on Friday nights, the Hersheys wrapper from the chocolate bar he had shared with Damien the first night they ever hung out, and a large group photo of him and the rest of the team. There was also a white pocket square he had worn with his tux to prom and a small mixtape Damien had put on a kasset for Shayne.   
Shayne was happy that Mari and Wes were having fun in Europe but he still missed them quite a lot. Hopefully they would be able to come home for Christmas and see their family and friends, he knew that the others in Cali missed them quite a lot as well. Joslyn and Lily were happy to receive a letter from Erin a couple of days ago as well. The trio had been split up because Erin chose to stay behind in California and attend UCLA for communications. She wrote all about her first few days at school and Lily and Joslyn squealed with excitement over the letter.   
Now Shayne was meeting up with David in a small cafe outside of Columbia University. They greeted each other with a warm hug and walked inside. Over the course of their senior year, despite David not being there with Shayne but rather attending a boarding school, their friendship had flourished through the many letters they had sent to one another. David spoke all about his first week at Columbia and how much he was enjoying studying mathematics as his major. Shayne also spoke excitedly about his first week as well. He was happy about growing closer to Lily and he liked all his professors as well.   
“So how are things going with you and Damien?” David asked as he sipped his coffee. Shayne’s face started heating up as his cheeks flushed. He held his coffee mug with both hands and savored the warmth it emitted, it was already starting to get a little chilly in New York despite it still being the beginning of fall.  
“They’re going really, really well to be honest. He loves it here and he’s been having a good time studying finance. He seems very in his element if I’m being honest and it seems like he’s making some new friends as well. He mentioned a girl by the name of Drew that is in the same finance classes as him and tomorrow when we are all gonna explore the city for a but she’s coming so that should be fun! What about you?” Shayne asked as he fiddled with his shirt collar.   
“Pretty good, like I said mathematics is going well but I don’t wanna speak too soon considering it’s just the first week. But other than that dorm life is great! I expected everyone to kind of be super snobby and hate Sohinki and I but turns out most of them are on scholarship like he and I are so they’re kind of in the same boat. The cafeteria food is subpar which is why I found this great cafe so close by.” Shayne laughed at his statement and the two continued on talking about their schools.

+++

The next day everyone met up at a small diner where they all planned on eating breakfast with one another. They all sat in a corner booth, luckily it was a little less crowded than before considering they all had way less people, and Shayne and Damien ordered their usual to split between the two of them; a short stack and an omelette.   
Drew had joined them as well and Shayne and the others loved her right off the bat. She dressed so cool with her mini skirt, chunky patterned sweater, and large oversized blazer. She also had golden eyeshadow which stood out against her dark skin and she had long, neat braids that cascaded off her head. She just radiated coolness and no wonder Damien wanted to be best friends with her so badly. At breakfast she made everyone laugh constantly about how one time she swore she was dating a vampire and the other time she once pretended she was engaged so she could try on wedding dresses for fun.  
“Wait, you doctored a photo or you and some random guy to show to the attendants?” Olivia asked between giggles as she tried not to spray orange juice everywhere.   
“Hell yeah I did!” Drew replied. “I got some old picture from my moms yearbook and used that to show everyone and they fell for it completely! I even brought my mom and a couple of my friends and they got way too into it and started shit talking my fake fiance with one another!” That statement drove Shayne over the edge and made him do his signature laugh that made him sound like he was crying. Because of his hilarious laugh the others started laughing just as hard.  
After breakfast they all walked towards the Empire State Building and took the elevator as far up as they could. Once they were there they all marveled at the city down below. Shayne thought it was so strange that everyone was actually so small and that being so high up really put him at a whole new perspective. While he was silently getting existential Boze realised how afraid of heights she was and they all soon had to go back down so Boze wouldn’t pass out.   
Next came a leisurely stroll around Central Park where they even managed to catch a Shakespeare in the Park showing and then headed towards the zoo. All Damien cared about seeing were the otters because in his opinion the otters were “By far the most exciting thing in any zoo. They just play in the water all day and mess around with one another and sometimes even go down slides! How can you not want to see that!” He argued to the others. Matt and David were a little more interested in the reptile house and Olivia didn’t care where they ended up as long as it wasn’t the butterfly garden. She ended up just watching the lions for the most part with Joslyn.   
Afterwards they grabbed lunch at a small food cart and Olivia was just happy that the cart sold churros. All of them ate their burgers in silence because they were so hungry and afterwards they went out to a nice ice cream place Lily had heard about from one of her journalism classmates. Shayne and Damien split a brownie sundae that had way too much hot fudge than they could handle.   
They all completed a few more activities such as go to the legendary Macy’s in the city, they visited Soho and went into a couple of shops, then lastly went into the FAO Schwarz toy store which filled all of them with the most childlike wonder they had ever experienced. All of them ended up getting a stuffed animal of their favorite thing they had seen at the zoo that afternoon, Shayne got a stuffed tiger which made Damien feel a slight amount of betrayal. The toy store also had a wonderful candy shop on the lower level and they all got some amazing looking cupcakes to take back home.  
All of them settled in Shayne, Boze, and Damien’s apartment that evening and turned on the radio and ate the many cupcakes they had bought. The radio was playing some old swing hits from the forties and Drew taught the group a couple of moves. The night ended with everyone laughing and dancing in the small living room with cupcake liners littered on the floor.


	5. The Record Shop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so, so much for all the support you guys have been giving this story! Also I am so happy I am able to post this chapter considering I went to Warped Tour today and I had just enough energy to post this chapter, I hope you enjoy it!!!

“So?” Anthony asked as he walked with Ian to the record shop that the team used to visit all the time. Ian gave his friend a questioning look while Anthony just kept his eyebrows raised like the question he asked had an obvious response.   
“So what?” Ian replied. Anthony rolled his eyes and shoved his friend, making Ian push his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and adjust his button up he was wearing so it wasn’t all wrinkled. “What the hell was that for?”  
“Are you gonna ask out Pam?” Anthony asked, making it seem like Ian should’ve known what he was asking from the start. Ian blushed a little bit and just shrugged his shoulders. He had only known Pamela for a week but they had several classes together and she was an absolute catch. She was smart, funny, loved comic books like he did and even knew more about comics than he did, she loved movies and books and had so many passions. She even showed him a couple small polaroids of her cat that she had and Ian thought the cat was incredibly cute which was great because he was a cat person as well. He was really falling fast and hard for Pamela, Anthony was right about how great she was, and he knew that if he didn’t ask her out soon she would probably get asked out by someone else.  
But then again what if she only thought of him as a friend and didn’t even want to date him. They really only had known one another for a week but was that enough time to ask someone out? Ian really liked the idea of becoming good friends first but what if she didn’t like that idea and thought he was a loser for not making an effort with her. Suddenly, Anthony shoved his arm again which made Ian frown. “Stop overthinking things and give me an answer.” He said.  
“I’m not overthinking things.” Ian huffed as they rounded the corner to the shop.  
“Yes you are you’re making the face you always make when you overthink things. You scrunch up your brows in a weird way and purse your lips. You do it every time.” Anthony insisted which made Ian groan because his friend was right. He definitely was overthinking things and it was no shock that his best friend had picked up on his mannerisms. “So are you gonna do it or what?”  
“I don’t wanna pressure her or myself. I like the idea of becoming friends first but what if someone asks her out before me, or what if she thinks I’m a pussy because I won’t take the initiative to ask her out?” Ian asked which just made Anthony roll his eyes again but this time in a slightly nicer way.  
“Dude, just ask her to hang out. It’ll show that you’re a little interested and she will probably enjoy it. Take her to the comic shop or the record store, do something that’s more activity related rather than sitting back and watching a movie and not talking to each other. Pam’s pretty cool so she will probably like being friends before significant others as well so it’s no big deal.” Anthony explained. Ian nodded along and smiled at the advice his best friend was giving him. They entered the record shop together and started browsing the vinyl section.   
Eventually the rest of their friends joined them in the shop and they all greeted one another with warm hugs and started gushing about their first week at school and Anthony let it spill about Ian’s crush which earned him a punch on the shoulder. While the rest of the group spoke to one another, Tanner cruised through the Black Sabbath section as he waited for Sarah who hadn’t showed up yet. He hadn’t seen her all week and was incredibly excited because over the phone she had mentioned how they had already started doing sketches in one of her art classes and when the team planned on meeting Saturday she would bring her sketch book to show him.  
Just as he was about to head into the listening room, the bell above the door rang and he saw the familiar caramel colored highlights that belonged to his girlfriend. He froze in his tracks and she made eye contact with him from across the store and walked over to him quickly. Sarah gave her boyfriend a wide smile as she plucked the record from his hands. He smiled back and she stroked his cheek with her hand.  
“It’s only been a week and you’re already getting all scruffy without me.” She joked as she ran her fingers over the stubble on Tanner’s face. She was right, usually Sarah was the one that reminded him to shave and without seeing her almost everyday he had become a bit of a mess. He smiled and kissed the palm of her hand, looked around to make sure no one was looking at the two of them, and then gave her a quick peck on her lips. Tanner was never really a fan of PDA even if he was with his friends. “When we get dinner in a bit I’ll show you my sketchbook, okay?” Sarah said as she started milling throughout the store. Tanner followed her like a lost puppy.  
Courtney was running her fingers over all the cassette tapes and mindlessly looked through all of them. She was really starting to miss Olivia. Even though they had broken things off for just the time being and she knew things would probably turn out okay she still couldn’t keep her mind off of the girl. They had broken things off for the time being because both knew how straining long distance relationships could be and how they could just cause problems instead of stop them, besides, what if one of them met ‘the one’ while they were at college. Courtney hoped that wouldn’t happen to either of them because she really did love Olivia. She had sent her a letter in the mail in the middle of the week and hoped Olivia would get it soon because Courtney knew how much she loved getting mail. Olivia always said it made her feel special because it was just for her.   
So far things at school were going okay, if anything Courtney just felt kind of lonely. She hadn’t really made friends with anyone in her nursing classes but instead just made smalltalk with a few of them for the most part. On top of that her sister Kari had just left to go take some photos of nature all the way out in Montana for a calendar company so she really was completely alone for the next couple of weeks. She was incredibly happy that she had the opportunity to hang out with her friends this weekend.   
“Get any postcards from Wes and Mari recently?” Flitz asked Joven from across the store. They were looking through the singles bins together and chatted about Flitz new job as an AC repairman and how things were going for Joven at CalTech.  
“Yup!” Joven said as he pulled out a Beatles single for Something. He thought about if he had owned it already and came to the conclusion that he did not and tucked it under his arm. “I got one this morning from Mari. It talked about how she and Wes had just arrived at the island of Zakynthos the day she had sent the card, so probably about a week ago. She mentioned that she and Wes look pretty different and how she wanted to send us some pictures of the two of them sometime soon. She talked about how wonderful Italy was and how kind the locals were and how she was excited about what she would see on the new island they were on. Wes wrote me a quick message talking about how he tried dancing with a street performer but was terrible at it.”   
Flitz snorted as he continued to look through the singles bin. “Sounds like Wes alright. They couldn't have changed too much if he’s still a terrible dancer. He doesn’t know how to find a beat if his life depended on it.” That statement made Joven laugh pretty hard. Soon Erin Robinson joined the two kneeling on the floor as they rifled through the singles bins together. “So Erin,” Flitz said, “how’s communications?” he asked.  
She just shrugged and tried to find some stuff by The Eagles. “It’s alright I guess. I think I just miss Joslyn and Lily for the most part, I mean you guys know us, we were completely inseparable all throughout high school and stuff and now for the first time we’re separated. But classes are going okay so far. Other than spending way too much on textbooks the classes are fun, one is even on the study of graphic novels!” She said casually, a slight upset tone in her voice. She definitely wasn’t wrong when she mentioned how inseparable she was with Lily and Joslyn. They were probably some of the most popular girls in school for all the right reasons, and now Erin was left to attend UCLA by herself. At least next year Mari and Wes were going to be there. But for the time being things were just a little difficult. Hopefully Christmas would come quickly and everyone would be able to reunite for a bit.


	6. Athens

The bright sun was shining on Wes and Mari’s tanned skin as they walked through the ancient ruins of Athens. They decided to take a small two day trip to Athens with another couple from France who owned a car. They hitched a ride from the couple and they were all staying at the same campgrounds. The french couple had wandered off to do their own thing throughout the day but they all planned to meet for dinner back at the campsite. Now the two young adults were looking at what was left of the famed Parthenon.   
Mari looked up at the tall structure in awe, marveling in the architecture that still remained. She had taken the liberty to read up on some of the things they would probably see in Europe and she informed Wes that the structure was a temple for the goddess Athena and how construction on it began in the height of the Athenian Empire. Wes nodded along as they walked through the ancient ruins hand in hand, not so much paying attention to what Mari was saying but rather her face as he tried to memorise every single detail of it as if his life depended on it.  
Then they just started walking around the city of Athens, continuing to soak up the sun and culture that surrounded them. Eventually they just settled on sitting on the edge of one of the many fountains in the city. Wes was leaning up against one of its pillars and Mari was curled up in his lap. He stroked her hair and started humming softly to himself.   
Ever since they had been in Greece and Mari had realised that back at home everyone was starting school Wes had noticed she was a little bit off. It was like the two of them were trapped in a time capsule on the other side of the planet while the rest of their friends were moving on with their lives. But the problem was Wes was enjoying staying in this time pocket, isolated from the others and just with the woman he loved. Yes, he did miss his friends to an extent but he knew that he would forever enjoy these moments in Europe and that he was changing for the better. But he didn’t realise that Mari might not be feeling the same.   
None of their friends or family were really able to write back to either of them because they were constantly on the move and going to different countries. Phone calls were too expensive as well, so while everyone else knew what they were doing they didn’t really know what anyone else was up to. He could tell Mari might be feeling a little home sick, missing the way her mother laughed and all the stupid things their friends would get up to. She probably missed the streets of LA, the record and book shops, the diner, her truck.   
Wes picked up his girlfriend which caught her off guard. He positioned her so she was on his back and the continued to walk through the streets of Athens like that, Mari on his back and his backpack slung over one shoulder so she could sit comfortably. He walked them back to the campgrounds where the french couple was already settled in. He chatted with them for a bit before heading into the tent and placed Mari down gently on the bed. Wes went back outside to grab her some of the food the foreigners had already cooked and excused himself and Mari for not joining them, saying something about how Mari wasn’t feeling too good at the moment.  
He held the steaming bowl of soup in his hands and let Mari sip out of the bowl before eating some himself. She stared off into space for the time being and Wes took the opportunity to braid back her hair and set up her stuff for when she would sleep. The sunset was already halfway over and night would soon set in. He had to force Mari to brush her teeth and then helped her wash off a bit and change into her pajamas. Soon they settled into bed at a time that was early compared to when they would usually go to sleep. Mari nestled herself into Wes’ side and closed her eyes but was not yet asleep.  
“I love you.” She whispered into his skin. Wes started toying with the end of her braid with one hand and with the other he rubbed circles onto her thigh.  
“I love you too.” He whispered back. He could still hear the faint sounds of the city in the distance and the small crackles that came from the french couple’s campfire outside. “Are you alright, you got real silent back there.” Wes asked. Mari shrugged and pulled the blanket around them and burrowed into the covers.  
“I’ll be fine.” She assured while pressing a chaste kiss onto his chest. He smiled and returned her kiss with one on the crown of her head. “I just miss everyone a little bit. I got so caught up in all these amazing things around us I almost forgot that doing this isn’t my life all the time. We came from someplace you know? We aren’t just some free spirited Europeans no matter how many languages we can pick up or how much your voice is changing.” She pressed.  
“My voice changing?” Wes asked as he quirked a brow at his girlfriend who just nodded slightly. “My voice hasn’t changed, not much about me has!” Mari scoffed at his statement and rolled her eyes.  
“Wesley,” She said as he rolled his eyes, he hated being called Wesley, “you’ve got tan skin for once, your hair is brunette for the first time in who knows how many years and is in fact becoming so sunbleached it is starting to turn blonde, you’ve leaned out a bit, and yes you are starting to get a different accent and your Cali one is fading.”  
“Okay then what does it sound like?” Wes asked, shocked that he hadn’t noticed his voice changing in the slightest bit.  
“It’s got hints of Spanish and Italian accents. Everything is just a little bit slurred and you are rolling your ‘r’s’ a bit more. Nothing wrong with it but I just thought you should know. When we go back home for Christmas in a few months I feel like you’re going to have to introduce yourself again.” She joked. Wes just smiled and laughed a bit but the thought of having to do something like that scared him just a little bit. He hadn’t really noticed all the change going on until Mari pointed it out and he didn’t mind it but what if the others did?   
“I don’t care though.” Mari said.  
“Care about what?”  
“The change, I’ve changed too so it doesn’t matter. We will come home and I bet you things will feel like nothing has changed at all. They’ll still love you and most importantly I still love you so it’ll be okay.” Mari mused, he just smiled and was happy to see she was feeling better. It was a little difficult however to remember that this wasn’t their life all the time. Times back in LA seemed so long ago even though it had only been one summer. He turned off the lamp that rested on the floor beside their bed and snuggled into his girlfriend a bit more as if he was terrified she would disappear.   
His breathing started to slow and soon he was out like a light. Mari however still wasn’t tired enough to sleep. She watched her boyfriends face as he slept. So relaxed and peaceful for once, not quirked up into a smile, smirk, or slight frown for once but instead completely at peace and his guard completely down. She always loved the idea of sleeping with someone in the literal sense. It meant that you fully trusted them enough to be with them when you’re in such a vulnerable state. Her mother used to tell her that if you could sleep comfortably with your significant other then things were always going to turn out okay.  
She brushed some of his fringe out of his eyes and reminded herself to give him a haircut sometime soon. His arms around her waist were surrounding her loosley and their legs were intertwined under the sheets. Mari savored in the feeling and enjoyed every second of it. She loved moments like these with Wes, ones that she could have all to herself because they were so special and personal. She loved everything they had in their relationship. She loved the start of it and everything that took place leading up to every second she had with him. This trip to Europe was one of the best choices she had ever made even if she felt a little homesick.


	7. A Night In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for not updating all weekend! I typically work on the weekends pretty late so I come home exhausted most of the time and would rather sleep than get near my laptop to write a new chapter. But hopefully this chapter makes up for it and also thank you so much for almost 200 hits! It really means so much to me that you guys are enjoying this story!

It has been a few weeks since the start of school and Shayne was enjoying every second of it. He had already gotten his first assignment back in his creative writing class and had gotten an A minus on his peice that focused on existentialism. He was happy with his grade on the piece and tucked it away in his portfolio with a smile. Shayne had also been growing much closer with Lily considering they had English 101 with each other. After classes would end they would head back to one of their apartments and go over the home work with one another, both were nailing the class so far and Damien was happy to see Shayne so happy and come out of his shell so nicely.   
Shayne was working on his latest piece for creative writing. Lately they had been working on character studies and how to build realistic characters with personalities and complex ways of thinking. Not everything was in black and white, most people have gray morals, so Shayne had to write about a character that was either misunderstood or morally ambiguous.   
So obviously he had chosen to write about Cujo, the rabid dog from the newest Stephen King novel that he grabbed off the shelf of the book store the second the book was put into stores. Damien shivered at the thought of reading a book so terrifying, but Shayne had been getting into horror novels as of late and King was an absolute legend. He thought the book wasn’t really all that scary anyways, he expected a rabid dog killing people left and right but the Saint Bernard only killed three people by the end of the story, instead the book was mainly about how a woman was cheating on her husband with another man.  
His essay focused on how Cujo the dog didn’t choose to become a rabid dog, the only reason why he became murderous was because while chasing after a rabbit he was scratched on the nose by a bat that happened to have rabies. In fact, after he was scratched the book even goes to show Cujo’s perspective and how he felt like he was being a ‘BAD DOG’ and how upset his stomach was feeling and how threatening everyone seemed. Shayne’s essay argues that Cujo really didn’t mean any harm, he was just affected by an unfortunate situation and ended getting rabies and killed three people and injured a woman in the process.   
Shayne hoped he would get an A on his essay as he typed it into the old Atari computer that the school library had to offer. He reread it multiple times to retype a few things and find spelling errors, then tried to print it as quickly as he could on the dot matrix printer that seemed like the loudest thing in the entire world. He pushed up his new horned rimmed glasses he had gotten about a week before, just like Damien his eyesight seemed to not be as crisp as it used to be. Damien liked his glasses though, he said it made him look sharp and Shayne said the same thing about Damiens because he knew how much Damien hated his new glasses he had to wear.   
The printer finally finished printing his five page essay in about ten minutes and Shayne thanked god that it was so quick this time around. He separated the perforated edges from the rest of the paper and placed the essay into his folder and headed back home. Boze said she was cooking dinner for everyone, she mentioned something about ground beef so Shayne wondered what she would be making for everyone.  
When he walked through the door he was met with the loud chatter of all his friends. Sohinki, Drew, and Lily were lounging in the small living room sipping on some beers and he heard the voices of Boze and Damien bickering in the kitchen. He set his things down in his room and changed out of his sweater and jeans into a comfy pair of sweatpants and a Grateful Dead t-shirt and joined his boyfriend in the kitchen.   
“What are we making?” He asked as he wrapped his arms around Damien’s waist from behind. Damien was cooking up a large amount of ground up beef in a skillet while Boze was chopping up tomatoes and lettuce.   
“Taco rice!” Boze chirped as she grabbed Shayne’s arm, separating his hold on Damien. She shoved two cans of refried beans into his hands along with a can opener and instructed him to heat them up while she shredded the cheese. “Olivia, Joslyn, and David are still finishing some stuff up for school and should be joining us soon. Joslyn said she would pick up some sour cream from the store for us and Olivia mentioned something about salsa. The rice is already cooking in the rice cooker and it seems like the beef is halfway done so dinner will be ready relatively soon.”  
After Shayne opened up the cans of beans and scraped all the contents into the small pan Boze had given him the rest of his friends entered the apartment, and David had a small paper bag of groceries in his hands. Olivia gt out plates and silverware for everyone and Joslyn started to clean everything she could for the time being, she was a huge stickler for keeping the kitchen as clean as possible.   
Dinner was ready shortly after and everyone loaded their plates up with food and gathered in the living room. Drew turned the radio on and soft voices of the radio talk show hosts echoed throughout the small apartment. They all laughed with each other and Lily showed off the postcard she had received from Wes and Mari in the mail. They were back in Paris because they had gotten a little tired of Greece and were lodging with a group of people from Australia they had met. The postcard was of Paris at night and the Eiffel tower was all lit up like a Christmas tree. 

+++

Shayne looked up at the ceiling. Damien was asleep next to him in their shared bed, he could hear the sound of his steady breathing. The brunette’s arm was slung around his waist haphazardly as he slept on his stomach but Shayne was flat on his back and couldn’t seem to move in fear of waking up Damien. He couldn’t stop his thoughts that were racing at a million miles an hour.   
For the most part he was thinking about all his friends back in LA. What were they up to? He had sent a few letters to some of them but the post seemed to take forever if you didn’t pay for express so it was hard to keep track. He had talked to Tanner for the most part and everything with him seemed to be going fine in his photography classes which was nice.  
He had also sent a few letters to Courtney along with a few postcards. He knew that she loved to get mail and she was probably feeling pretty shitty ever since she had broken things off with Olivia for the time being. Shayne knew that Olivia was feeling especially horrible at the moment and was a little more quiet than usual ever since school had started. She said she was fine but he knew that she wasn’t really doing all that well no matter how many times he had checked up on her. Christmas couldn’t come soon enough, hopefully that seeing Courtney over their holiday break would restore her faith in humanity for the time being and the two girls would rekindle things.  
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Damien muttered which caused Shayne to jolt out of his thoughts because he was caught so off guard. He just shrugged and held Damien’s hand while fixing the covers around them.  
“A lot of stuff, mostly Olivia and how she isn’t doing all that hot at the moment. And how things are in LA as a whole, you can only say so much in a letter ya know? Same thing goes for Mari and Wes, I really hope that they’re okay over in Europe.” Damien rolled his eyes and eventually just put his hand over Shayne’s mouth to stop his rambling.  
“They’re okay, I promise.” He reassured. Sometimes Shayne could get worked up over things even if everything was perfectly okay. He knew that it had to deal with Shayne’s anxiety but sometimes the anxiety would get the best of him and cause him to worry about things that he shouldn’t be concerned over. “Get some sleep, you’ve got one more day of classes tomorrow and then we’re free for the weekend!” Shayne nodded, smiled, then nestled himself into the covers and held his boyfriend as he drifted off into sleep.


	8. Friday Mornings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I just wanted to thank you for 240 hits! That's amazing and all the support you've given me is amazing! Also I just wanted to apologize for having this chapter up so late, I know I've been using work as my excuse a lot recently but I work on a food truck and during the summer things get pretty crazy and sometimes I get home at around 1 or 2 in the morning and get to go to sleep by 3 AM, so sometimes writing is the last thing on my mind. I hope you guys can understand! But I will be posting a lot more and hopefully I won't go on such large, unexplained breaks again! I hope you enjoy this chapter because I've got a ton more coming, this fic is really going to be great and I hope everyone likes it!

‘Thank god for fridays.’ Joven thought to himself as he slumped in his desk chair and switched on the lamp. Fridays were his day off at school and since school had started he set aside friday mornings for homework so he could have his weekend all to himself. It was nearly seven o’clock in the morning and he thanked himself for going to bed early because he promised himself he would get up as early as he could the next morning to get all the work done as soon as possible.   
The work load for this weekend was moderate. Joven really did keep up with his homework after all but it seemed like all his professors loved giving homework over the weekend so he would stay busy and not let himself go to waste. CalTech was a pretty advanced school after all so it wasn’t like he hadn’t prepared for all of this, he was just asking for a break every once and awhile. Luckily all the homework for his Math 216 class was finished (and he praised himself for taking as many math classes in high school so he would only have to take one more in college) and it seemed like the majority of his work for the morning would be for his Physics 240 class. Joven sighed and shoved his glasses onto his face, whipped out his calculator and scrap paper, and got to work on calculating the momentum of two opposing forces colliding with one another.   
As he mindlessly went through the equations and solved for multiple variables, his mind wandered off to his group of friends in NYC. They all seemed to be growing closer to one another than they had been back in LA and he knew it was because they were the only people they knew in that big foreign city. But he still missed Sohinki and David quite a bit, the three of them had been the three amigos back in high school and a part of him was a little scared that their bond would be broken because of their time apart. Joven also thought about how Erin had been missing Joslyn and Lily ever since they had left as well. When he would see her on the weekends she seemed pretty down in the dumps and letters could only do so much to ease the pain.   
The two of them had thought about buying some cheap plane tickets and heading over to the Big Apple for Thanksgiving. Ever since they had spoken about it to one another they had been saving up as much money as they could. Joven had already spoken to David about whether or not the group would be returning home for Thanksgiving but none of them were because Christmas was coming right after and flights were so expensive they would only choose one holiday. Hopefully if everything worked out okay he would be reunited with his friends over Thanksgiving dinner.   
Jovens mind also wandered over to Mari and Wes and their adventures in Europe but rather than being happy for them he was a little concerned. They were still in Paris for the time being and found a cheap apartment to rent out for another month so they would no longer have to stay with the Australian couple, but things didn’t seem one hundred percent okay over there.   
Wes had sent Joven a very long, fleshed out letter that asked him to not share any of the contents with the others for the time being. He talked about how Mari had become distant, starting going out and clubbing at night, and wouldn’t talk to Wes about how she was feeling. Wes sounded scared and made things sound like something was very wrong and even went as far to share the address of the small apartment to Joven so Joven could write back. Of course Joven wrote back as quickly as he could and paid the extra mailing prices so Wes would receive it as fast as possible. In his letter he assured Wes that things would probably turn out okay and it’s not unlikely for Mari or anyone to get into a modd. She was probably just feeling homesick and sometimes being around the same person all the time could make even the nicest people go a little insane. Joven made sure to tell Wes that maybe even coming home for just the shortest amount of time would possibly help in the long run.   
As Joven read through some of the pages in his text book that helped explain the in depth concepts of centripetal motion, he really just hoped his friends in Europe would be okay. They were all alone in a city where hardly anyone spoke the same language as them and the only people they had were one another. Something about the whole situation really made Joven feel a little sick on the inside, but for the time being he just pushed the feeling aside and tried to focus on the equations printed out on the worksheet in front of him. 

+++

Tanner looked out onto the stretching, desert roads in front of him and bobbed his head along to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” kasset that was playing through his truck stereo. The sunrise would occur soon and he was hoping to catch it on camera for his latest photography assignment. He had to capture some of the aspects of nature in LA for his portfolio. His instructor said that even though his photos that depicted the LA city scene were quite astounding, they had all taken place at night and featured artificial light and tons of people. He needed to expand his photos if he really wanted a diverse portfolio.  
So Tanner had set off early that Friday morning to capture the sunrise in the desert before his lunch date at noon he had planned with Sarah where she would show him her latest works of art in her sketchbooks. He was hoping he would get the chance to shower off before picking her up for lunch because he knew he was going to get pretty dusty from all the dirt and sand. Hopefully he wouldn’t get a sunburn along with it, even though it was still autumn the California sun could be quite unforgiving no matter what time of year it was. After parking his truck on a beaten path on the side of the road, he hopped out, set up his camera, threw on his baseball cap and shades, and set off into the sand so he could get the perfects shots.   
He walked through the hot, slippery sand of the dessert in his sneakers and jeans and watched as the very top of the sun started to peak out over the horizon. Tanner looked through the viewfinder of the camera and snapped a quick photo that featured the golden beams of the sun reflecting off the fine sand. He got a few more photos like that until he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned to his right where there were a few black boulders lying about and on top of them were some desert iguanas soaking up the remaining coolness of the rocks before the sun would reach them. Tanner walked slowly over to the rocks and focused his camera lense on the iguanas before snapped a few photos of their perked up heads and large tails.   
After catching some more photos of the sunrise he managed to get some more pictures of the desert wildlife. A few lizards here and there, he managed to get a couple of shots of a rattle snake that was several feet away, and he even zoomed in on a scorpion that was hobbling over the brush and small rocks that littered the ground. By the time he was done, the film cartridge in his camera had been filled up and he set off in his truck once more to try and get home to shower before picking up his girlfriend. Hopefully when he developed the photos in his college’s dark room they would turn out okay and his instructor would be happy.

+++

Noah smiled as he read the letter he had received from Olivia in the mail and Keith was reading the one he had gotten from Boze while a wide grin on his face. The letters talked all about their day they had spent with the group exploring NYC, all the cool restaurants they had visited so far, and how school was going. Keith was happy that Boze finally seemed in her element and he knew that moving to New York would be a good choice for her. LA just wasn’t he city, and that was completely fine because her happiness outranked everything. Noah was also happy that Olivia seemed upbeat in her letter. Courtney was slowly getting over the breakup they had and just kept reminding herself that it was all temporary and things would work themselves out in the future.  
They had also included two Polaroids in their letters. Olivia’s was of her, Joslyn, Lily, and Sohinki while Boze’s had her, Shayne, Damien, and David all smiling and making some goofy faces. On the backs were small hand written notes from everyone else along with the dates of the photos. Both Noah and Keith smiled as they pinned them to their wall with all their posters.


	9. Paris

Wes looked at the glowing lights of the city. The Eiffel tower was all lit up across the street and the rest of the buildings looked like stars, Paris really was The City of Lights. A record that had all of Frank Sinatra's greatest hits was playing softly from the small living room of the apartment and he was perched on the window seat in the back of the room and continued to look out at the city. It was nearing midnight yet everyone was still bustling around down below and he could hear the faint sounds of people talking and loud club music echoing through the streets.  
Ever since he and Mari returned to Paris, Wes felt so out of place. They had been in the city early in the summer after they visited Spain for a week and the city seemed so wonderful and magical at that time but now he just felt like he was sticking out like a sore thumb. He was already used to people not speaking the same language as him or at least not speaking the same language very well, but it was how he looked that made him feel self conscious. After spending so much time in places like Italy and Greece which turned him muscular and tanned, it felt like everyone in the entire damn city was staring at him like he was an intruder. While Mari was tanned as well and on top of that she was Asian, she was also small just like everyone in Paris and she could dance and knew the language much better than him. She seemed to of made some friends because now she would hang out with them at night, go clubbing or get dinner with them all the time and Wes had resorted to just keeping himself cooped up in the cheap apartment.  
He had received Joven’s response letter early that morning which delighted him to no end. He had kept a very watchful eye on the mail that was coming in and made sure Mari didn’t check it and opened the letter herself. She seemed to be very adamant with the whole minimal contact thing they had been keeping up, he didn’t even tell her that he shared their address with Joven in his letter nor did he even tell her about the letter at all. Joven’s response gave him minimal reassurance because things with Mari felt like they were deteriorating at such a rapid rate he couldn’t keep up, while he had changed physically Mari seemed like she was changing on a whole other level. Almost like she was becoming a completely different person. Wes was worried about what would come of them and he really hoped Mari would just come back to him and be the person he had always known.  
Just as he was carefully placing Joven’s letter into a small sleeve of his backpack the door opened and the sound of Mari’s shoes padding across the floor flooded his ears. Wes quickly zipped up his bag and rushed into the kitchen where Mari was standing in front of the fridge with an apple in one hand and a jug of water in the other. She didn’t even look at Wes as she grabbed a cup off of one of the shelves, took a large bite out of the apple, and poured herself some water.  
“Did you go dancing?” Wes asked while trying to sound as cheerful as possible. Mari just nodded her head and returned the water to the fridge and sat down on the small sofa. “Was it fun?” he asked, he mentally scolded himself and felt like he was prying into her personal life but then realised that they were in a committed relationship and he was just asking basic questions.  
“It was fun.” Mari said shortly. “Did you even do anything while I was gone?” She asked in a mildly harsh tone which made Wes finch.  
“I bought this record from the shop down the street, I wanted to see if the shop was any good.”  
“Was it?”  
“It was fine.” He replied. The conversation felt so bland and foreign to everything he used to experience with Mari. She used to be so full of life and gushed about anything and everything, now it just seemed like the two of them were meeting for the very first time and they didn’t like each other at all. Wes went into the bedroom and decided it was time to just get some rest and hoped that Mari would just feel a little better in the morning but then again he had been hoping that for days and nothing seemed to be any better. After thirty minutes Mari joined him in the bed and they faced away from one another, sides barely touching underneath all the covers. Just as he eyes started to droop Mari blurted out a question.  
“Do you even know why we are back in Paris?” She asked loudly, jolting Wes out of his drifting. He flipped over and watched as she sat up abruptly and switched her bedside lamp on. He squinted and looked at her upset face and sat up in the bed.  
“You wanted to come back, I thought you just liked the city enough that you wanted to come back and stay for a little while longer.” He said, confusion infused into his tone and concern written all over his face. Now Mari was really starting to trouble him. She just sighed in defeat and covered her face with her hands angrily.  
“No.” She said rather bluntly. All the thoughts and worries and stress started to crash down on her as she realised she was going to have to tell Wes sooner or later. She had been avoiding it for weeks, going out and clubbing, distancing herself, and trying to do anything that would take her mind off of telling him about the changed they were soon going to face.  
“Then what is it?” Wes asked as he was no longer feeling large amounts of concern but instead annoyance and frustration at Mari’s lack of communication. They came to Europe so strong and now they were both hitting the lowest of lows with one another. “You know you can tell me anything right? That’s what this relationship is built on, trust, and trust means that I will never judge you or hurt you or betray you.” He explained while his voice was rising. Mari looked at him dead in the eyes, her face was angry and her brows were knitted together.  
“I was given an offer.” She said.  
“Okay,” Wes replied, still annoyed that she wasn’t giving him anything along the lines of context or an explanation, “What kind of offer then?”  
“I was asked to join the Paris Opera Ballet.”  
Wes’ shoulders slackened at what his girlfriend had said. She had gotten a job offer, a job offer for probably the most prestigious ballet companies in all of Europe and maybe even the world, which means she probably auditioned at some point. But how? She gave up ballet years ago to be free of the harsh lifestyle and training so she could enjoy the things she loved like comic books and her friends, but now she was saying she was able to join one of the best ballet companies in the world?  
“I auditioned when we came here early in the summer and they got back to me back when we had just left Italy.” She started to explain, but Wes just held a hand up and refused to look at her.  
“Why?” He asked sternly. His other hand was clenched tight into a fist and even his toes started to curl. “You gave it up to be free and now you’re doing it again? Now?”  
Mari looked at him and rolled her eyes, “Of course you don’t understand.” She scoffed.  
“Understand?” Wes asked while raising his voice. He slipped out of bed and started pacing the room. “You’re asking me to understand why you’re going back to ballet when all you’ve done for so many years is badmouth your dancing career? You want me to just drop everything I’ve ever known about you and just suddenly go along with your plan?”  
“So you’re not happy for me?” Mari asked as she rose out of the bed and stood in front of him so he would stop walking around and finally look at her. “You’re not happy that I was able to join one of the best ballet companies in the world even though I quit ballet years ago and auditioned with minimal practice? Do you even care at all?”  
“I don’t know how to feel!” Wes almost yelled. He looked down at Mari who was fuming and he realised he was probably doing the same. “What am I supposed to feel? You have known about this for almost a month and rather than tell me about it you decided on just not sharing anything with me all of the sudden. On top of that you auditioned for this at the beginning of the summer? So this whole entire trip that we chose to go on together, and chose to put a halt on our education for an entire year, and our dream of attending UCLA with one another was all for nothing then wasn’t it? We didn’t come to Europe to learn, no, we came here so you could audition and then just expected me to drop everything and go along with your plan! That’s why we are here, tell me if I’m wrong!” Wes shouted. He had never felt this angry in his entire life and tears even pricked in his eyes. He was gripping onto the bed frame and turned his head to look at Mari as she stood there in complete silence, refusing to answer him.  
“I chose to audition after we arrived not before.” She said quietly. Wes scoffed and pushed past her so he could grab his bag. He threw it on the bed and opened up the closet to grab his few items that were hanging. “What are you doing?” Mari asked, she sniffed and wiped away a stray tear.  
“When do you start?” Wes asked as he meticulously folded a shirt.  
“Huh?” Mari said out of confusion.  
“When do you start?” Wes repeated.  
“Um, after the weekend if I take the offer now.” She said quietly. Wes closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing to pack. “What are you doing?” Mari asked, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at her. When she saw his face she saw the tears streaming down it, the messy brown fringe that was hanging in his eyes, and the tired look that consumed his features.  
“It’s better if I go.” He choked out. Mari let out a strained sob and fell onto him, grasping at the material of his shirt. Wes held her wrists to keep her off of him, and while that was painful enough, and eventually just moved her so she was sitting on the floor. “Obviously this was going to happen, I can't just drop everything and stay here with you. I don’t belong in Europe and I certainly don't belong as the nameless husband of a prima ballerina. The least I can do is go back to LA after Christmas and start school as fast as I can and maybe even take some summer courses to catch up with everyone else.”  
“You can’t just leave me here!” Mari pleaded as she sobbed on the floor. Wes zipped his backpack shut and changed out of his pajamas and into a t-shirt, jeans, and leather jacket.  
“Why not?” He asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder. “You were going to do the same to me, weren’t you?” Wes kneeled to the floor where Mari was and placed his hand on her shoulder, then placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. She grabbed ahold of his hand and tried tugging him to the floor with her but failed. He stood up and headed for the door and watched out of the corner of his eye as Mari scrambled after him. An endless stream of tears was coming out of both his eyes and he refused to wipe them or make any proper crying noises until Mari could no longer see him.  
“This was going to happen regardless, we were really just good in theory.” He sighed. Wes tugged open the door and turned to see Mari giving him the saddest expression he had ever seen. Then he walked out of the door wordlessly and by the take he made it to the streets he was crying nonstop, and he remained that way until he boarded his flight to NYC four hours later.


	10. Surprise Visit

Boze and Joslyn moved about the kitchen as they prepared lunch for the group. All the teens who lived in New York with one another had grown accustomed to eating with each other for at least one of their meals, mostly dinner, at one of the apartments. They had just gotten back from another day at the Met because they felt like during their first trip they hadn’t seen all of it, and now were waiting on a late lunch early dinner. Joslyn’s mother had mailed her a recipe book filled with healthy meals she could make and now she was preparing the chili recipe with Boze.   
Damien and Sohinki were talking about the latest issue of the New Yorker while Olivia was adjusting the radio so she could listen to a song she liked. Meanwhile, Shayne and Lily were finishing up the last bits of their English 101 homework together so they would have the rest of the weekend to spend with their friends. It was a Saturday and they all usually went out anyways, and Drew had mentioned a dessert place she wanted to try.   
In the middle of sharing notes with Lily, Shayne heard a knock at his apartment door. As he walked to the door he laughed as he motioned for everyone to quiet down a bit, hopefully it wasn’t a noise complaint from one of the neighbors because he really thought they hadn’t been that loud at all. Shayne opened the door and was met with a tall, broad young man with sun bleached hair, very tan skin, and wide brown eyes. Shayne almost told the guy that he might be at the wrong place until he heard David speak.  
“Wes?” He asked, the orange haired boy stood from his spot on the couch and everyone’s mouths opened from shock. “What the hell are you doing here? Is everything alright? Is Mari with you?” David asked as he ushered Wes into the room.   
Shayne gave Damien a look of concern and confusion and Damien sent him a subtle look that showed he was feeling the same way. Wes however was absolutely right in all of the post cards he had sent him, Shayne absolutely did not recognise Wes at all and felt a little ashamed that he almost turned his friend away.   
Wes sat down on the floor after setting his bag by the wall but was soon tackled by Boze in excitement. She squealed from happiness as she hugged him and Wes just laughed a bit, tired from the night before and the plane ride he had just gotten off of. She pressed a kiss to his forehead and hugged him some more just to be sure he was actually in the living room and wasn’t just some illusion. “What the hell are you doing back?” She asked after finally settling down, Wes just sighed and everyone gathered around him to find out what was actually going on.  
“Well uh, the gap year is over.” He said as he rubbed the back of his neck and stretched his legs. The others looked at him and one another with confused expressions on their faces. “Well at least my portion of it is.” He paused and everyone was still looking at him, intrigued, “Mari and I broke up.” Wes finally said under his breath.  
Everyone stopped for a moment and even a few of them gasped. They were all so taken aback at what he had just said and so many thoughts were racing through their heads. “A lot happened after the summer had ended and school started for you guys.”  
“So did you just abandon Mari in Europe?” Sohinki asked, sounding concerned and even a little but angry at the thought that Wes might do something like that. Wes however just shook his head no and covered his face with his hands out of frustration of even thinking about the breakup with Mari, everything was still so fresh.   
“Actually it was kind of the opposite, or at least it almost was.” Wes said, he then went on to explain how they had grown distant and the lack of communication. Then he told the others about Mari being accepted into the ballet company and how she hadn’t told him, then he went on about the night before and what happened during the fight and even how he felt horrible that he refused to look at Mari when in reality last night could’ve been the last night he ever saw her for the rest of his life. His story was filled with quite a bit of self-loathing, regret, but also the feeling of betrayal because Mari never shared any of this with him and just expected him to go along with this life change and abandon his life and friends in the states. Eventually Wes ended up crying some more even though he had done lots of that in the Paris airport and everyone else felt like they were going to cry with the exception of David and Boze because they were crying with him.   
Joslyn and Lily got up to finish dinner and Wes and Boze went into her bedroom so he could have a bit of alone time and talk some more about what was going on with her. Shayne just sat back down on the couch and settled into Damien’s side as he was nestled into the side of the couch. Damien’s hand went automatically to Shayne’s hair and Shayne took off his glasses and set them on the coffee table, then rubbed his eyes for a few moments. He pressed away the few tears that were in his eyes and propped his feet up on the table.  
“Jesus christ.” Damien mumbled just loud enough for Shayne to hear.  
“I know.” Shayne replied. He felt so conflicted about what was happening. Mari and Wes were the star couple, he looked up to them because they seemed so perfect and he remembered how excited they both were towards the end of senior year for the gap trip they were going to go on and how excited they both were to attend UCLA. He wondered what made Mari change her mind so quickly to abandon those plans and wondered if she was doing okay. She was alone in Paris but it sounded like that’s almost what she would want at the moment. “This feels so fucked.” Shayne whispered to his boyfriend and he felt Damien nod against the top of his head as the brunette placed a kiss in his hair.   
Half an hour passed and dinner was finally ready and eventually Wes and Boze came out of her bedroom. She gave everyone a look which told them to ‘drop it’ in reference to the whole Wes and Mari situation and instead they went on acting like they usually did and Wes even cracked a smile and laughed as he sat and ate his food with them.   
Everyone filled Wes in on what was happening and how school was going, David and Sohinki even offered to take him on a campus tour which was exciting because none of them had even seen what in Ivy League campus looks like so they decided that’s what they would do the next day. Boze talked about how much she was loving LIM and Lily and Shayne talked about English 101 which wasn’t very exciting to everyone else but was exciting for them.   
Drew introduced herself as well and talked about how much she had heard about Wes from the others. She was from New Jersey which is why she knew so much about NYC because she had visited the city all her life and David really was trying to get her to come to LA with them for their Christmas trip back home. Wes seemed excited to meet her and asked about the others in LA and how they were all holding up. Of course none of them had the most contact with the rest of their friends but did send letters quite frequently which made Wes happy.   
Then Wes grabbed his bag and opened up one of the compartments and started pulling out various brown or white paper bags. “I almost forgot,” he said as he continued to pull out the bags, “I wanted to get everyone souvenirs on all the travels, I thought I would have a lot more by the time I got back but I hope the suffice. Save some for the others in LA though.”   
Inside the bags were small magnets, trinkets, and polaroids from all the various places Wes had been. They all marveled at the photo of the beach in Zakynthos, Greece and Damien fell in love with the dried flowers Wes had snagged from a field in Italy when they lived there for quite some time. Everyone continued to look through the many, many things Wes had brought back and listened intently to the stories Wes had for each of the items he had brought back. And as Wes spoke and the others listened, a part inside of him realised that everything was going to be okay.


	11. Coffee Shop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys so sorry for such a late update, totally my fault. Last night I had work and I got home around one in the morning because the event I worked was out of town, and Sunday night I was exhausted from a bunch of stuff that had been going on at work all weekend. Monday night is inexcusable however because I'll be honest, I was literally just playing Fortnite. I got the game a couple days ago and it's literally so addicting and Monday night I played with some of my buddies from work and boyyyyyy did I have the time of my life.  
> However, if any of you guys play Fortnite feel free to add me! My Epic Games profile name is Tob Rhomas and if you ever want to play just shoot me a message on Instagram (@becky_sub) or on Tumblr (@rsublett) and I'll totally play with you! I'm not very good but I do have a lot of fun and it would be cool to get to know some of you guys!  
> Also! Very big thank you so everyone who helped get Who Knew over 3000 hits! It means so much to me and it's incredible that in a years time we were able to get 3000 hits on my very first fic! I am so proud of it and I am so glad you guys liked it!  
> Thank you to everyone who continues to leave comments, kudos, and hits on this fic as well and I will try and update more regularly! Thank you I love you guys!

“So you guys broke up? Just like that?” Joven asked over the phone. Thank god his father had recently invested in a new phone line that made out of state calls much cheaper because he had been on the phone with Wes for about thirty minutes now as his friend explained everything that had happened back in Paris. A part of Joven was surprised by the breakup because he thought they might’ve worked it out and he thought the source of the problem was Mari and Wes were homesick, but her trying out for the ballet company caught him off guard. But when Wes explained how he felt and what Mari did, he understood why he cut things off with her. Now the only thing Joven wanted to do was get in touch with Mari to see if everything was okay on her end.  
It was a late Saturday night on the west coast and Joven continued to talk to Wes about everything for a few more moments before he had to head out to meet up with the others in a coffee shop somewhere downtown. He explained how he and Erin wanted to come to New York for Thanksgiving and if they went they could take Wes home with them so he wouldn’t have to wait till Christmas before returning to LA. The last thing Wes wanted to do was travel alone considering he had taken and eight and a half hour flight by himself the day before. Besides, this would give him a chance to catch up with the others in NYC before coming home.   
Wes said Boze was planning on moving in with Joslyn, Lily, and Olivia for the time being and he would take her room that way all the girls were together and all the boys shared an apartment for the time being. The girls’ apartment was slightly bigger anyways so Olivia had no problem sharing her room with Boze for a little while. He said he was going to go out and look for a part time job on Monday, New York was filled with many opportunities so it wouldn’t be hard to find something for a little while. Shayne wanted to look for a part time job as well because he didn’t want to constantly rely on his parents for rent money, Damien already had a nice hook up at the college where he got paid to file reports for some of the professors.  
“Hopefully I’ll see you soon.” Joven heard Wes say over the phone, he didn’t seem too upset but Wes could be pretty good at hiding his feelings. He was positive thousands of emotions were running through his friends head at the moment but both of them knew things would probably turn out okay. “Also, can you try and keep this between us for the time being? I’m okay with you telling Ian but I don't want the others to flip out or anything. Just tell them Mari and I are in some remote part of Europe and there’s no post office or something like that.” Joven laughed and told Wes he would keep the whole situation on the downlow and wished him goodbye, then after hanging up the phone he grabbed his jacket and keys and headed out the door to meet his friends. 

+++

Courtney was just staring into her coffee cup while all her friends surrounding her were talking and laughing about their week at school. Flitz was sharing some stories about his job as an AC repair man and the stories were quite entertaining but Courtney couldn’t bring herself to look up from the iced vanilla latte she had ordered until the cafe door bell opened and Joven waltzed inside. Her friends barated him as he apologised for being so late and he mentioned something about Wes calling him and saying he and Mari weren’t going to be able to contact the rest of them because they were in a remote part of Europe for the time being. She went back to picking at her nails and every so often taking a sip of her drink as Joven settled in with the others.   
It had been almost a month since school had started and almost three months since Olivia had left for New York and Courtney still couldn’t get the image her out of her brain. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was terrified about the future of their relationship. She worried that Olivia might find some other girl to be with, New York City was such a diverse place similar to LA so it wouldn't be hard to find another girl who was gay. Or worse, what if Olivia found another boy to be with. That’s what worried Courtney the most, even though she knew Olivia was pretty confident in her sexuality what if there was an absolutely perfect guy out in New York that was sweeping her off her feet.  
“You good?” Noah asked, nudging Courtney’s arm. He noticed the blond had been staring at the ice in her drink for a solid three minutes, hardly blinking while having a very intense look on her face. His nudge caused Courtney to jolt a bit in her seat, pulling her out of the daze she had been and the conversations around her were no longer muffled.   
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good don’t worry.” She said with feigned sincerity. Noah just shrugged and went back to listening to what Sarah was talking about, her animation class seemed very interesting. Courtney went back to daydreaming about the worst case scenarios that Olivia had the potential to be caught up in while she was away in New York.   
On the other side of the table however, Keith had noticed the whole interaction between Courtney and Noah along with Courtney and her coffee cup which seemed to be the most interesting thing in the world considering how intently she was looking at it. He made a mental note to hang out with her sometime this week one-on-one to see what was going on inside her head. He shot Noah a look and he gave Keith one back, signaling that something was off about their friend.   
After a while everyone decided it was pretty late and some of them had homework they needed to get to. Courtney packed up her purse and hastily walked out of the small coffee shop and to her car. Once inside, she banged her head against the steering wheel in frustration that he own thoughts wouldn’t let her have an enjoyable night out with her friends.   
Back in her apartment, Kari was sitting on the floor and adjusting some of the lenses in her camera when Courtney walked in. Thankfully her sister returned home recently so the apartment was no longer her least favorite place to be considering how lonely it could get with no one being in it. It used to be filled with Olivia’s constant laughter from all the sleepovers they used to have but now it was empty, not even the cool tapestries or posters could make Courtney smile.  
“What’s going on?” Kari asked as she fiddled with her camera a but more after Courtney slumped face first into the couch. Her bag and jacket her shucked to the floor and he legs hung off the end as she moaned into the fabric.  
“Am I depressed?” She asked as she buried her face deeper into the plush fabric, hoping it would swallow her whole. Kari just laughed at her question and if Courtney had raised her face from the couch she would’ve seen her sister shaking her head.  
“No, you’re just a lovesick teen who can’t get over the break she’s having with her girlfriend.”  
“But is she even my girlfriend if we’re on a break right now? What the hell even are we? We’ve shared like maybe four letters since school has started and I’m too broke to pay for out of state calls and so is she so all we have is snail mail and I sent a letter like three weeks ago and it seems like she hasn't even responded!” Courtney rambled, Kari just rolled her eyes.  
“What if she finds someone else? What if she turns straight again?”  
“I highly doubt that will happen.” Kari assured. Courtney shoved her face back into the couch and screamed into the cushion. For one second she would’ve liked to not think about the beautiful Chinese American girl that held her heart but it seemed impossible not to think about her.   
“Feelings are stupid and I want to die.” Courtney admitted, Kari scoffed and went back to adjusting her camera. “At least Wes and Mari have things all planned out.”


	12. New Experiences

Shayne and Wes ended up finding jobs as mail carriers for the postal service. The hours were flexible and they both had similar routes and ate dinner together most of the time if things ran late. They ended up working Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays from three to seven and after they got their first paycheck both were pretty happy with having the jobs. Their routes were mostly just residential areas in the nice parts of town. They’d take the subway from the main post building and walk their rout because streets were too crowded for trucks and they didn’t deliver packages anyways.   
Damien’s job as an assistant to some of the professors was going pretty good as well. Most of the time he just make copies and filed papers in between his classes. He was mainly being paid under the table considering he didn’t have an official job from the school but the professors liked Damien and knew how much school cost in the first place.   
Even Olivia picked up a job on the side to help her mother pay for school and rent. She started working as a waitress in a nice little restaurant in the city that served Chinese food. It definitely helped that she knew Chinese fluently and the correct pronunciation of all the dishes and on occasion she would deliver orders on one of the bikes the restaurant provided. Most of her tip money went to paying her share of the rent and the other part was mainly disposable. David and Sohinki didn’t have much time for a job considering they had to maintain a certain GPA to keep their scholarships that gave them a full ride to an Ivy League school.  
Late Thursday night Wes and Shayne collapsed on the couch in the apartment. Their train home got delayed so they ended up walking home which cost them almost forty five minutes of their time. It was also starting the get much colder as it was nearing mid October and all the leaves had changed color in central park and the winds were picking up. The buildings blocked off the majority of the sunlight which only made things colder, Shayne was starting to break out some of his thicker sweaters.  
Wes was slowly getting over the breakup with Mari and over time everyone back in California learned what happened between them. They all seemed pretty upset over it but knew the relationship only would’ve been toxic if they stayed with one another. However, no one had heard anything from Mari which troubled them. She hadn’t even sent a single letter which bothered Wes to an extent, but he knew he probably shouldn’t reach out to her considering how bad he left things.  
Regret started to fill his veins the first week he had been in New York. All he wanted to do was fly back to Paris and beg for forgiveness which ended up with Shayne and Damien sleeping in his room on the floor for a couple of nights to make sure he didn’t sneak out and go to the airport. He hated how bad he left things in Paris and had the image of Mari’s crumpled body on the floor and the tears that were falling from her eyes. He shouldn’t of said the things he had said, he should’ve looked at her one last time. Wes even contemplated going back to Paris and becoming the person Mari wanted him to be but he knew how wrong that was.  
“Do you think she’ll ever write to any of us?” Wes asked out of the blue as he sat on the couch next to Shayne. Damien was out getting dinner to bring home for the two of them so the apartment was empty. Shayne turned his head and quirked a brow.  
“Mari?” He asked.  
“Yeah.” Wes said as he looked out the window and stayed slumped in his seat, “Mari.” Shayne sighed and looked at his friend. He didn’t really know what to say because he had never been in this position before and he also didn’t really know what to feel. Damien was better at talking to people about their feelings so this wasn’t really his strong suit in the first place.  
“I think Mari is on a different path now, or maybe on the one she had always intended to be on. It seems like things changed before you guys left for Europe and from what happened there it doesn’t seem like she ever intended on buying a ticket back to LA. It seems like she’s moving on from the rest of us and the only thing that tied her back home was you, and now that you’re gone she’s gone in both and physical and figurative sense.” Shayne replied, wincing at what he had said because it made him sound like a robot who was trying to learn what feelings were. Wes chuckled a bit and ran his fingers through his hair that was now neatly cut into a crew cut.  
“Your English analysis classes are really changing the way you are thinking dude, that sounded like one of your essays.” Wes said, Shayne laughed a bit and was just happy to see his friend smile.   
“To be honest I might’ve taken that out of a passage I wrote from one of my analysis papers.” He said, that only made Wes laugh harder. 

+++

Mari’s feet were aching when she returned to her very empty apartment. After Wes had left that fateful night, she had never felt so alone and noticed how small and dismal the apartment was. Life as a ballerina wasn’t something she was foreign to but she had also never worked for such a large company before. She was only a background dancer for this production of Orpheus and Eurydice but was hoping she would be able to become an understudy for the annual Christmas production of The Nutcracker.   
She rummaged through her record bin but couldn’t decide on anything so just setting onto the window seat that overlooked the city while sipping on a cup of tea. Mari sighed, she missed Wes dearly and hated how things ended. She longed for his touch and kind words but wondered if her feelings were one sided, if Wes wasn’t missing her at all she didn’t want to write a letter to him only to make a fool of herself.   
After her first week at the ballet company she reached out to her mother and father back in California to tell them what she had done. She could hear their disappointment over the phone, she wasn’t going to get a proper college education and asked her what would happen if this opportunity were to fall through. Her mother especially seemed upset considering Mari wasn’t coming home any time soon and cursed her for letting a nice boy like Wes go. Mari was also mentally cursing herself for letting Wes go but she wasn’t planning on admitting that to anyone any time soon.   
After rehearsal she would return to her apartment and ice her aching muscles and stretch her very sore feet. She was having to rebuild the calluses she had built up over time from wearing pointe shoes and was now feeling the effects of letting those calluses wear down. She had also forgotten how cramped your feet could get after wearing those shoes for so long. Mari had already worn through one pair of pointe shoes in her first week and just like the other dancers she was going through a pair every two days from the non stop rehearsals.   
But it was paying off, she could feel herself getting back into the motions and her choreographer, a very young and handsome man who was slightly older than her, was constantly giving her words of encouragement and was no longer having to correct her on almost every move. Mari could feel that she was developing a slight crush on the man which made her feel quite guilty considering she had just broken things off with Wes.   
Mari wondered what people were thinking of her back home. Did they hate her or did they hate Wes? Or worse, did they even care at all? She wondered if Wes ended up going to LA or went someplace completely different for the time being and even wondered if he had told anyone at all. Was she considered a villain back home or was everyone concerned about her lack of contact.  
But as she continued to delve deep into her feelings about home she realised how deteached they were starting to feel. In Paris she was starting to make new friends with the dancers in her company and the thought of all the things she used to do with her friend back home felt so distant and even immature. Here she felt so grown and independant, and the thought of going through even more school made her feel sick.  
Mari continued to sip on her tea and contemplate how things were going back at home and soon those thoughts faded into distant memories as she laced her pointe shoes and went over the choreography for the upcoming show.


	13. Halloween in LA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooooow okay so I'm the worst. Sorry for only updating on Friday, I was out of town for work and literally wrote that chapter on a food truck while we were traveling and on top of that when I got back Sunday night I had literally no clue what to make chapter 13 about for the past few nights. So sorry this is so late, I keep saying "lol I'll be back on my normal posting schedule" but then I am not on it bc I suckkkkk so sorry about that lmaooooooo. Thanks for reading though, half of the research for this chapter was me looking up movies and tv shows that came out before 1981 and thank god the 1981 Halloween was ACTUALLY on a saturday or else this chapter would be fuuuuuucked up. Thanks 4 reading tho, love you guys yall r the best, I promise to the like, 2 of you that read the chapter notes that I'm not drunk or high rn but this is literally how I talk/text irl and I'm just tired of all the formalities. I'm 17 yall, give a bitch a break and let her text as if she was illiterate!!!

Ian glanced out of the corner of his eye just to see a small snippet of Pam’s face. They were currently sitting in their Friday morning lecture for their math class that was two hours long and was at eight o’clock in the morning and Ian felt like death. But somehow, during this torturous class, Pamela always managed to look completely stunning with her super cool hair and glasses it made Ian speechless every time. Thank go this was his only class of the day because he needed time to go back to his room and control his blushing.   
The math class he shared with Pamela was twice a week, once on Monday where it was only an hour long and at the reasonable hour of ten and the other for two whole hours on Fridays where the professor would just give a lecture and go in depth with all the new equations he would introduce. It made Ian was to die and his only saving grace for the class was Pam even if that meant every time he would glance at her while she sat a few seats away and would sometimes catch him staring and made his heart beat at a million miles an hour, it was still completely worth it.   
They had spoken a few times and she was always polite and would talk about stuff Ian liked and they bonded over bands and Ian cherished every conversation they had. Anthony was still pestering him about his crush but that was expected from his best friend. And when Anthony mentioned something about a guy on the lacrosse team having a small thing for Pam it only made Ian worry more about whether he should act in his crush or not.   
Was he even her type? Pamela seemed way cooler than him so that made her one hundred percent out of his league which only stressed him out more and now that he knew some hot lacrosse player might make a move it made him want to die almost as much as his math class did. Anthony however only found it funny because Ian had always been so put together and now the only thing ripping him apart was a girl who was interested in the same comic books as him. It really didn’t help that Pam was literally the nicest person on the planet and was super funny as well.   
Finally the professor dismissed the class about five minutes early considering no one was paying attention anyways because everyone was excited for the weekend considering it was Halloween the next day, and Ian packed up his things as quickly as possible so he could run out the door before someone noticed how red his face was. However before he could even exit his row he felt a light tap on his shoulder and he whipped his head around to see Pamela’s wide eyes looking up at him while a coy smile was on her lips.   
Ian stood there with his mouth slightly opened as he was internally panicking because he had no clue what to do. Was Pamela about to call him out for occasionally staring at her? Because he really didn’t feel like explaining his feelings at the moment because they made him feel like a kid in middle school all over again and she probably wouldn’t want to date a guy who had the emotional range of a middle schooler.   
“Logan asked me to go to his Halloween party his frat is throwing tomorrow but I found that invite to be completely boring.” Pamela stated confidently. Logan? Who was Logan? Ian racked his brain for a moment and realised that Logan was the lacrosse played that apparently liked Pamela and was also a super huge jerk and even though Ian had never even spoken to the guy he hated his guts. “Apparently he thinks I’m hot or something which is a shame because I don’t even find him remotely attractive.” Pamela went on to say as she continued to stare right into Ian’s eyes while he was trying to keep it together. “So I was wondering if the cute guy from my math class who likes the same comics as I do was doing anything fun on Halloween night.” She said with the same pretty smile that make Ian weak in the knees.   
Wait, cute guy? And she was talking to him?  
Ian almost slapped himself because the cute guy she was referencing was him, he was the cute guy which meant Pamela thought he was cute and possibly even interesting. He broke out into a large smile and felt his cheeks heat up as they both walked out of the classroom with one another. “Y-Yeah,” Ian stammered, “My friends and I were all planning on dressing up tomorrow night and maybe even go trick-or-treating like old times and head back to my place to watch a scary movie.” Pam’s eyes lit up at his plans which he thanked god for because he was nervous she was going to think his plans were the lamest things in the world. “So if your interested in my very loud friends, free candy, and dressing up in a dumb costume then you can totally come if you’d like.”  
Pam smiled at Ian, “I’d really like that.” She said sweetly.

+++

Tanner shrugged on his silk robe he had snagged from the thrift store, put on his pair of gym shorts and sneakers, then slung the set of boxing gloves over his shoulder and headed downstairs where Sarah was already waiting. She whistled at his appearance and he spun in a quick circle to show off his Halloween costume. He had decided to go as Rocky this year after he found the boxing robe at the thrift store while trying to come up with ideas for costumes.   
Sarah on the other hand was clad in black leather pants, a black leather jacket, and a helmet and a fake shotgun as she was going as Max from Mad Max this year. They piled into Tanner’s car which wasn’t really a Mad Max car, and headed towards Ian’s house with their old trick-or-treat pillow cases for the nights events. Once they parked their car on the curb they both headed inside and met up with their friends.   
First they saw Erin and Keith who decided to do a coordinating costume and go as Sandy and Danny from Grease. Keith looked pretty cool with his slicked hair and leather jacket while Erin made her red curls larger than normal so she could look like Sandy at the very end of the movie. Courtney was Indiana Jones and was even wearing a nice leather hat her sister had found in some foreign country and even managed to get her hands on a wip. She said hello to Tanner and Sarah and seemed to be doing a little better ever since Olivia had sent her a few letters in the mail recently. Of course Joven was Batman and Flitz was dressed in an all purple suit along with a ridiculous cain and top hat because he was Willy Wonka. He was even doing some somersaults in Ian’s driveway as they all waited for the others.   
Eventually Noah and Anthony showed up. Anthony was Han Solo which went well with Ian’s Luke Skywalker outfit he had chosen while Noah was Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Finally, the woman of the hour showed up in an orange jumpsuit and helmet as a Rebellion fighter pilot from Star Wars. Pam shook everyone’s hand and was excited to see that she wasn’t the only person who dressed as a Star Wars character for Halloween. Meanwhile Joven was just shocked that a girl would even come as a Star Wars character, not even princess Leia but a fighter pilot in fact.  
“You did good dude.” He whispered to Ian before they all set out to go trick-or-treating. Ian only blushed and waved Joven off.   
Their candy escapades went until ten and afterwards they all went back to Ian’s place where they traded the things they didn't want for the things they did. Ian was happy that he ended up getting the bulk of the Twizzlers while Noah hoarded his Reese’s pieces. Everyone then decided on a movie to watch and settled on The Exorcist because Keith had never seen it even though he didn’t want to. Soon the basement where they were all huddled around the television was filled with shrieks of terror and Keith begging for someone to turn the movie off.   
Ian however wasn’t scared, he had seen the movie dozens of times with Anthony when they were younger and knew almost all the lines. So he was delighted to see that Pam was also mouthing along the the lines of the movie. He nudged her shoulder and offered her a Twizzler, then they went back to whispering the dialogue of the movie to one another while everyone just yelled for them to shut up because it made the movie ten times more creepy.


	14. Halloween in NYC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmaoooooooo sorry for not updating in such a long time, I know i'm an asshole lol.

The apartment was decorated with multicolored christmas lights, small paper jack-o-lanterns, and smelled like cinnamon because of the candle Damien had lit and the apple pie that was baking in the oven. The group was throwing a small Halloween party, costumes included, and were all having a blast as they baked fall goodies while horror movies played on the television. Wes went to the the video rental store and rented out as many horror VHS’s as he could and Boze and Olivia went to the farmers market that morning while Shayne and Damien picked out their costumes.   
Joslyn went all out my going as Regan from The Exorcist. She messed up her hair, drew cuts and bruises all over her face, and painted green paint all over a night gown so it looked like it was covered in vomit. Damien ended up going as Robin Hood because he used to love the old cartoon Disney movie as a kid. David went as a simple cowboy while Sohinki went as a pirate. Shayne dressed up in a makeshift orange space suit that we created out of several items he found at the thrift store and was Bowman from 2001 a Space Odyssey, completed with a very shitty plastic space helmet. Drew was Uhura from Star Trek while Lily dressed up as a vampire.   
Boze whipped up the batter for a pumpkin pie while Shayne was waiting for the apple pie to cool. The atmosphere in the apartment was lovely as screams were being heard from the television and Olivia tried to cook dumplings while dressed as a shark. The costumes Damien and Shayne had chosen for the two girls were absolutely ridiculous. Olivia was a shark while Boze was dressed in a giant orange sheet with a hole cut out for her head as she went as a pumpkin.  
Shayne wondered what was going on back in LA and realized that he should probably write to his parents soon. He had sent them a few letters in the past couple of weeks but he knew they were probably missing him quite a bit. Damien was also wondering what things were like back in LA. It was probably significantly warmer there and he really did miss only having to own a windbreaker instead of thick wool coats and warm leather boots. Hopefully Noah and Keith were treating his car right, they probably were but he couldn’t really control his anxiety that much.   
“Alright, alright!” Joslyn said smiling, which was odd considering how terrifying she looked. “Come squeeze in for a picture!” Everyone gathered around her small polaroid camera and made a funny face before snapping a photo. Wes adjusted the crown on his head that went with his supposed ‘prince charming’ costume and went back to helping boze make pastry dough.  
“Okay once we finish up with all the pastries,” Drew said as she fixed her pinned up hair and costume, “I actually heard about this super cool party from someone at school. It’s on a club and everything, the only thing you need to get in is a costume.”  
The idea sounded pretty fun and once everyone was able to help with the dishes the kitchen was cleaned in an instant. The pies needed to cool anyways and coming home to pie and ice cream after a night out clubbing seemed pretty enticing. Shayne was excited as he grabbed his wallet and made sure he had enough money for a possible cab ride. He made sure to grab his subway card and adjusted his costume and headed out with the others. 

+++

The club was absolutely packed with people. They were dancing to loud music, on top of one another, and were moving in one big mass. The group sort of plit up and went in small groups and Shayne ended up with Damien and Olivia. Damien ended up shouting something about getting water and Olivia dragged Shayne out to the dance floor.  
They danced to a couple bop songs but after a while Shayne started to feel like he was overheating. Everything seemed to be moving so fast and everyone was so close together. As he continued to push the feeling down and try dancing with his friend he was slowly feeling like he was losing his breath at a faster rate than normal.   
Things were starting to slow down, almost as if he was watching a movie and there was a scene in slow motion. He pushed past Olivia, the music at this point was now muted as his forehead and palms were becoming sweaty. It felt like he was suffocating and he wished that everyone would just disappear because he felt like that would solve all of his problems.   
Olivia tried to rush after Shayne after he burst past her. His face was red and he was tugging at his costume. She finally found him in a back room by the bathrooms where the music wasn’t as loud. Her friend was curled up on the floor hyperventilating. His whole body was shaking, eyes were wide, and he had tears falling from his face. She fell to the floor with him and shouted for someone to get help.   
“Shayne!” She shouted, turning his face in her hands so he would look up at her. At this point he was laid out and was still panting but soon the panting stopped and his head pulled to the side. Olivia continued shouting for help and soon someone rushed to her side and assured her they called 911. He was passed out at this point and Olivia kept shaking him so he would wake up. Shayne was delirious and was mumbling something incomprehensible.  
Finally Damien rushed to his boyfriends side right as the paramedics came. They clipped off his Halloween costume so he would cool down and started running him through some breathing exercises while trying to get him to drink some water. After about thirty minutes Shayne was out of shock and went from being horrible to being minorly okay. He was very shaken up and the paramedics offered to let him stay overnight in the hospital but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to afford that.   
The paramedics pulled Damien and Olivia to the side and told them Shayne had a major panic attack. They said it was probably suppressed anxiety and feelings that Shayne had possibly been pushing down for years. Olivia and Damien were instructed to keep a close eye on him for the next few weeks and gave the two young adults a list of affordable therapists.   
The ride home on the subway was very silent as Shayne kept a death grip on Damien’s hand. When they finally got home to the apartment someone turned the radio on low and served pie and ice cream. After a while everyone got comfortable again and started speaking again but not at their usual volume in case Shayne got upset.  
“Shayne, I am so sorry.” Drew said as she kneeled beside Shayne and collected his bowl. He just shook his head and took her hand in his and explained that taking them to the club was not a bad idea at all and that he was even excited to go at first.   
“I had no idea that this would happen so it is really not your fault, at least now we know what to expect when it happens again and I’m really going to consider this whole therapy thing so there’s no worries.” Drew smiled and went to go wash dishes and Damien plopped down beside Shayne.  
“You’re good, honest?” The brunette asked while holding his boyfriends hand. The blonde nodded and leaned into the touch.   
“Don’t mention this to my parents.”  
“I won’t I promise.”  
“They worry enough and I can’t have them thinking about all this. They might even drop everything and try to drag me out of here and I won’t have any of that.” Shayne explained. Damien nodded and just listened to the music that was playing over the radio, trying to forget about the scary event that had happened.


	15. Girls (and one boy) Night

Ever since the Halloween incident Shayne felt like everyone had more anxiety than he did. Even Damien was acting a little off, which didn’t necessarily bother Shayne but instead make him chuckle to himself a little bit, but he did wish things were back to being the way they were before. The only people who really seemed to be understanding him the most were all the girls, who were naturally more in tune with their emotions in comparison to all the guys he was friends with. While Damien was a relatively sensitive guy himself, he didn’t really compare to how understanding all the girls were with either their own, or Shayne’s feelings.   
So when ‘girls night’ rolled around two weekends after the whole panic attack incident occurred, the decided to invite Shayne along so he would let out some of his feelings that he was holding in. While he was regularly visiting the on site therapist at NYU, the girls figured he might feel just a little more comfortable sharing his feelings with people he was familiar with rather than a complete stranger. So that Friday night they whisked Shayne away to the apartment owned by Olivia, Joslyn, Lily, and special guest roommate Boze (just for the time being until Joven and Erin came to collect Wes during Thanksgiving); and told Damien they would return him in one piece the next morning when they all were planning on going out to brunch with their other friends.   
First, they hit up the local Walgreens to pick up snacks and some skincare products. After that they went to the video rental store to grab some movies for the night, they finally allowed Shayne watch 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time since they arrived in New York. Shayne sheepishly pulled out his own VHS of the movie which made Olivia’s eye almost roll to the back of her head. However Joslyn insisted on renting out Shampoo because Carrie Fisher was in it alongside Goldie Hawn.   
When they arrived at the apartment they made sure to immediately change into their pajamas and threw 2001 into the VHS player. Shayne opened one of the packs of Oreos he purchase along with the jar of peanut butter and sat in front of the television in his boxers and old t-shirt. The girls continued chatting as they sorted through the beauty products Shayne didn’t understand.  
“Oh my god Shayne,” Boze gushed as she dragged his attention away from the TV. He looked at her blankly while he held an oreo covered in peanut butter in one hand while the other was gripping the jar of peanut butter. “Girls night isn’t just where you sit in front of the TV! Come over here and pick a face mask.”  
“Face mask?” He asked as he walked over to the kitchen counter. He set down his snack and sorted through the various plastic packages that mentioned things like charcoal, cucumber, and aloe. “What the hell are these?”  
“Lemme look at your skin!” Joslyn exclaimed as she grabbed his face that now had a confused expression written all over it. “I say you should just use this one. It has lavender in it which smells nice, very calming and moisturising.” She said as she thrusted one of the plastic packages in his hands.   
After explaining how the face mask worked, the girls applied it to his skin. It was cold felt nice and was also tinted purple. Olivia helped smear it onto his skin and laughed at how silly it made him look. Shayne returned the favor by helping her apply the green aloe mask that she picked out. After applying face masks Boze suggested that they build a fort while they wait for the masks to set.  
Lily brought out all the blankets they had and after about fifteen minutes they had created a relatively stable for that still offered them a view of the small TV. After washing off their masks which left their skin refreshed and clean, they all huddled under the fort and cuddled into each other while holding onto various pillows and blankets. Shayne didn’t really know what to do until Olivia just motioned for him to rest his head in her lap. The second he laid down in her lap she started running her fingers through his hair absentmindedly which felt amazing because Olivia had those long acrylic nails   
that scratched his scalp perfectly.   
“Jesus, it feels like forever since we’ve done something like this!” Boze commented as she bit into an Oreo smeared with peanut butter. Olivia nodded her head in agreement.   
“When was the last time we did something like this? What, like junior year?” She asked.  
“I feel like we had a sleepover in between where it was just the girls but I can only really remember the one from junior year where we made all those lists.” Boze snickered.  
“Lists?” Drew and Joslyn asked at the same time. Olivia and Boze just laughed a little harder as they started to remember the conversations they had that night while sitting in a similar blanket fort in Courtney’s living room.   
“Oh my god!” Boze gushed as she wiped some of the laughter tears that came out of her eyes, “So many things were said that night Jesus christ!”  
“Okay but what kind of things?” Lily asked, getting curious as to what happened at this amazing sleepover that occurred almost two years ago.   
“If I recall,” Boze said as she thought back to that night, “we all shared our thoughts and feelings about all the boys on the ultimate frisbee team.” That caused all the girls to burst out laughing but it made Shayne wonder what they said about him. Back then he was the incredibly shy new kid that was blushing over Damien 24/7, which wasn’t much different to how he was now but he thought he might’ve changed a little since then.   
“Damn, what the hell did yall say?” Drew asked.   
“Well it all started when we were pestering Mari about her crush on Wes.” Olivia said, but immediately after she said that everyone kind of went quiet. “Wow, yeah that’s how it started.” Olivia and Boze pondered that conversation for a bit more and reminisce in the moments that were much more simple and a little more happy. “She told us she liked his eyes and his hair and his hugs and from there we just started gushing about how pretty all the boys were.”  
“I vaguely remember Olivia saying something like, ‘I’m gay and so is Shayne but wow does he have an amazing body’ or something like that.” Boze said to lighten the mood. All the girls just continued giggling but Shayne was a blushing mess and was now covering his face. After a but they settled down and all the girls silently decided they would focus on Shayne a little bit more.   
“Man, that must’ve been back when you and Damien just started dating right?” Lily asked. Shayne nodded and sat up from Olivia’s lap so he could look at everyone. “What was it like for you? I mean it must’ve been difficult but like, what were you feeling?” She asked. Shayne thought for a moment while he picked at the bottom of his shirt.   
“You know I think I remember that night.” He said softly. Shayne looked up at Boze for a moment and his signature, flashy smile crept onto his face. “I remember eating at Boze’s father’s restaurant and all the girls leaving in Mari’s truck while saying something about a ‘girls only’ sleepover at Courtney’s place.” The girls settled into comfier positions as Shayne started talking. “I believe that night was the first time Damien and I were truly alone with one another and I spent the night at his house. Technically it was our first date I guess. Damien likes to say that our first date was when I took him out after the frisbee team had been cut and we went out to dinner and held hands in the listening booth at the record shop, but I like to call this our first date.”   
The girls ‘awed’ at his statement about holding hands secretly in the listening booth and how he liked to call his first time sleeping over at Damien’s house his first date with his boyfriend. Shayne just blushed a little more and adjusted his pj’s before continuing with his story.   
“I remember we ate ice cream and sat by the fire and took a bath together. We talked about anything and everything and later we made out a bunch before going to bed at then at 2 AM we made out even more in his bed. I liked how we got to cuddled on a surface that wasn’t the floor for once and how messy his hair was.”  
“Sometimes it’s hard being together though, not like he’s doing anything wrong but sometimes I remember that my parents don’t really approve of us being together which kind of hurts. Especially since his mom is so accepting and I don’t have that. And even though LA and New York is very accepting of the two of us there are still people that are against it which sucks so we still don’t hold hands in public or show much affection to one another unless it’s behind closed doors. To an outsider we probably just look like best friends, which is what we want onlookers to thinks, but at the same time I hate hiding and so does he. Way back in junior year I remember resenting how I felt because I knew that I liked boys even back before I met Damien or moved to LA. But once he and I got together it made things better which is great and I know we’ll be together forever.” Shayne gushed. He refused to look up from the floor because he knew all the girls were probably tearing up and thought he was being all cute because he never really opened up that much before.   
When he finally did look up he didn’t realise that he himself was tearing up just a little bit. The girls pulled him in for a nice group hug and afterwards they focused their attention on Shayne’s favorite movie.


	16. Cafe Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyyy sorry I suck ass and haven't updated in a HOT minute. I started school this week (woot woot senior year bb!!!) and I have TRIPLE early dismissal this year so hopefully I'll update a little more frequently than compared to last year. Thank you so much for all of your support and I hope to update soon!

Tanner was sitting in a wobbly wire chair outside a small cafe in Downtown LA with his girlfriend Sarah. It was ten o’clock in the morning on a Friday and while Tanner already had his class because it went from eight AM to nine thirty AM that morning. He sipped his much needed coffee and tried paying attention to what Sarah was saying but at the same time he couldn’t bring himself to pay attention to anything she was saying.   
“So my drawing class is going so well it’s incredible. Painting is okay I guess, a lot of the others seem to be way better at drawing backgrounds and landscapes much better than me which is kind of upsetting but I seem to be excelling in more abstract area of painting. Sculpting is next semester and I have no clue what’s gonna happen when I get to that point so hopefully it turns okay relatively okay. When I took sculpture in high school I wasn’t very good so hopefully the teacher is amazing.” Sarah said excitedly as she poured a sugar packet into her coffee. As she stirred the cup she looked up at Tanner only to find him looking staring blankly at the table and mindlessly picking his nail. “Hey are you good? Or is my college experience too boring for you?”  
Tanner’s eyes shot up and adjusted the way he was sitting in his chair. “What? No everything is fine I just kind of spaced out sorry. My week has been a little hectic and stuff. Sorry for not giving my full attention that was rude and my fault.” He ran his fingers through his hair and fixed his jacket even though it didn’t really needed to be fixed.   
“Don’t worry about it, is everything alright?” Sarah asked, setting down her cup and reaching across the table to grab her boyfriends hand. Their fingers laced together naturally and she looked at Tanner with a slight hint of concern in her eyes.   
“I’m not sure to be honest. Photography is going great, in fact everything is going great academically. My professor really liked the photos I took of you along with my desert animal project so I got high marks on those. Even in my film analysis classes I’m okay.” Tanner went back to looking at the table and took a quick sip from his coffee cup. “I guess somethings just been eating my insides recently and I don’t know why.”  
“Is everything at home okay?” Sarah asked, her eyebrows knitting together and her grasp on Tanner’s hand became slightly tighter.   
“Yeah, my dad’s been away in Sacramento for work which I think has been bugging my mom. She’s been on edge recently and you know she has that short temper sometimes which can be upsetting.”  
“Did she say anything?”  
“No, no everything’s fine. Insults are meaningless and I’m okay.” Tanner sighed and rubbed his eyes and blinked them tightly. “I think I just miss when times were simple and we were managers of the fucking frisbee team. Life was so damn easy in high school. Simple classes, frisbee, everyone still lived in the same goddamn city.” He adjusted himself in his seat again because of how uncomfortable he was feeling. Tanner never really liked talking about his feelings all that much. He thought he was the worst at it, people like Damien or Shayne or Flitz were much better at this kind of stuff.   
“I can’t stop thinking about everyone in New York.” he huffed.   
“That’s understandable Tanner.” Sarah assured.   
“Yeah but,” he looked back up at Sarah and stared at her hair, “between Wes being back in the states because of the whole break up scenario and Shayne having panic attacks I’m wondering is they’re even okay over there.” He stared at the caramel highlights in her hair and tried to count all the several different shades of brown in her hair so he could take his mind off of how uncomfortable he was feeling.  
“They aren’t falling apart Tanner, things just happen and sometimes those things are sad or scary. Wes seems to be okay and Shayne is getting help remember? They’ll survive without us and I think you’ll survive without them as well.” She ran her thumb over Tanner’s knuckles. He quickly pulled her hand up to his face and gently kissed the palm of her hand, then closed her hand into a fist as of she was holding the kiss.   
“Yeah, yeah I know.” He whispered. “But I mean, you miss those late night sleepovers at Wes’ house too right?” He said a little louder. Sarah chuckled and nodded her head while brushing a strand of Tanner’s sandy brown hair out of his eyes.   
“Of course I do don’t worry. We had our first kiss at one of those sleepovers, remember?” She said with a smile. Tanner broke out into a small smile of his own which made her happy.   
“Damn,” he sighed, scooting his chair closer to Sarah, “that was a long ass time ago wasn’t it? What like, sophomore year right?”  
“Yup we were little babies back then. That was before Shayne even got here.” Sarah replied.  
“It was a bad kiss.” Tanner blurted out, blushing soon after he said it.   
“No it was not!” Sarah defended, giggling.  
“It was a bad kiss! Just admit it!” Tanner joked while poking Sarah’s side which made her laugh harder.  
“It really wasn’t!” She laughed as she started to poke Tanners sides and make him laugh as well.   
“Sarah!” He said between giggles.   
“Okay, okay fine. It was kind of bad but I mean for two sophomores who had never kissed anyone before I’d say it was pretty decent.” She said, settling back into her chair and draping her arm around his shoulder.   
“Ahhhhh!” Tanner covered his face to hide all of the blushing.   
“What else am I supposed to say? That it was the best kiss I have ever had? It was both of our first ever kisses! At least you didn’t use tongue.” Tanner blushed even more at her comment and she pried his hands off his face to show off his adorable blushing cheeks.   
“Yeah but my baseball hat hit you in the forehead!” He said, his voice muffled because he was trying to hide in Sarah’s shoulder, away from the rest of the world and her gaze.   
“Why are you so focused on how bad our first kiss was? It already happened and it’s not like you can go back in time and change that fateful night at Wes’s house or anything.” She joked. He groaned and buried his face further into Sarah’s shoulder.   
“Have I at least improved since then?” He asked meekly, almost embarrassed.  
“Christ Tanner of course you’ve improved since then!” Sarah checked her watch and noticed the time and started to grab some of her things and throw them into her bag. “I have my art history class an hour so I gotta go, you gonna be alright?” She asked, pushing his face away from her shoulder and running her fingers through his hair.  
“Yeah, yeah I’ll be alright.” Tanner said with a small smile. He stood from his chair and then helped Sarah up from hers. They walked to their cars in the parking lot while holding hands, swinging them a little bit, and Tanner was feeling much better than he had been before.   
“I love you.” Sarah whispered in his ear while they stood in front of her car. Tanner smiled a little wider and gave Sarah a hug.   
“I love you too.” He whispered in reply. She squeezed him and then pulled away. Tanner pressed a chaste kiss on her lips and then one on her forehead. They said a few more words and soon he was off walking to his car.   
“See you tonight for the second half of this date?” Sarah shouted from across the parking lot. Tanner gave her a thumbs up and waved back to her.   
“See you tonight!”


	17. Thanksgiving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okayyyyy bois. I need your help!   
> It's gonna be a couple more chapters till My Love is finished but I need help picking my next AU for the next fic! I am currently deciding between THREE AU ideas so let me know down in the comments what you want to see out of these three ideas:  
> 1.) Wizards of Waverly Place inspired AU  
> 2.) Ballet/Dancer AU  
> 3.) WWII AU  
> Let me know what you guys want!

Autumn would soon be ending in New York as the weather was already starting to get pretty chilly. The leaves were still falling and were magnificent colors creating the perfect atmosphere for Thanksgiving. Joven and Erin had arrived the night before and were greeted with excited hugs from David and Matt, and Erin was incredibly happy to see Joslyn and Lily. Wes was also excited to see his friend but things were feeling a little bitter sweet as this meant he would be leaving for LA in a few days. While he was sad to leave part of his friend group behind, he couldn’t wait to get home and see the rest of his friends and family. He had already enrolled into UCLA for the next semester where he would start studying education. Olivia had already handed him a couple letters to deliver to Courtney and he promised he would keep them safe and hand deliver them to the blond.  
The night Erin and Joven had arrived they helped with prepping the Thanksgiving meal for the next day. Boze’s family had sent her many recipes to prepare for the dinner with her friends and she was following them incredibly meticulously. While David and Sohinki had waited for their friends at the airport, Shayne, Damien, and Olivia trekked to several grocery stores and farmers markets across town to get all the ingredients. They were holding Thanksgiving at the boys’ apartment and Joslyn, Drew, and Lily were in charge of tidying things up because they claimed the boys had left it in a huge state of disarray.   
That night everyone helped prep the food for the next day and the kitchen was filled with laughter and funny stories from Joven’s experience from college. David marveled at how he was dealing will all the physics work he was having to deal with and talked about how difficult some of his mathematics courses were. It felt good to catch up with his friend, neither Matt, David, or Wes realised how much they had missed their friend. It was almost like Joven had brought a little slice of home with himself.   
The next day everyone got up early and walked to see the annual Macy’s day parade. It was absolutely freezing outside so everyone was bundled up tightly in scarves and wool coats. As they walked down the street, Damien held Shayne’s hand tightly and the blond could feel the heat through his knitted gloves. He smiled shyly and tried to hide his blush with his scarf and it felt nice to walk down the street holding his boyfriends hand, even if their hand hold was pretty well hidden. In the place they were standing they saw Tom Brokaw from the Today show smiling wide and presenting the parade on national TV. They all waved to the camera and hoped their friends and family back home would see them on TV.   
Eventually they returned home to the apartment after seeing Santa Claus on his magical slay and Boze put them straight to work. The small turkey was slow roasting in the oven already and by the time they got back from the parade they could take it out for a bit to work on the other items. The girls were throwing casserole in and Damien and Shayne made a quick trip to the bakery down the street to grab enough rolls for everyone (they had forgotten to get them the day before). Wes and Joven worked on assembling the pie and David and Sohinki were setting the table and trying to find enough chairs to fit everyone.   
The football game was playing over the radio and every once and a while the boys shouted at the radio in support of the Detroit Lions who were playing the Kansas City Chiefs. So far it seemed like the Lions would win and David and Matt were staying hopeful, Wes on the other hand didn’t really care for sports much.  
Just as the turkey was getting its last few minutes in the oven the phone started ringing. Joslyn picked it up and was met with loud shouting from the other end and recognized her friends voices immediately. “Oh my god!” She shrieked and pressed the button on the phone that made it go to speaker, “I can’t believe you guys are splurging on an out of state call like this!”  
Everyone gathered around the landline phone and shouted excited hellos to everyone back in LA. Olivia and Courtney had a sort of awkward greeting and Ian introduced his girlfriend Pam who he had been dating for the last month and a half.   
“Hey Wes we are all really excited to have you back soon!” Tanner shouted. Everyone vocalised their agreement and Wes blushed a bit.  
“Yeah I’m excited to get back on track, it’s getting too cold here anyways.” He said while scratching the back of his head. Everyone talked for a few moments more and decided they had to stop because of how expensive out of state calls were. Everyone felt better after hearing from their friends like that, especially Olivia. Courtney only talked about how things were going for her at school very briefly, but it felt like ages since she had heard her voice.   
Dinner was filled with laughter and praises for Boze’s cooking as they all sat cramped around the small table. Shayne looked over at Damien who was laughing at a wild story Drew was telling and he smiled. For the first time in a while he really felt at peace sitting next to Damien like this, like they were family. ‘I could get used to this.’ He thought to himself as he buttered a roll for himself.   
Shayne looked at all his other friends, his family. I hoped things would be like this every year. I loved every single one of them and for a moment he felt like he was going to cry from happiness. The painful memories and feelings of being overwhelmed faded away as if they had never existed, and he wished he would remain like this forever. 

+++

Mari looked out her window and saw the people down in the courtyard below were chatting and having fun like normal and yet she was stuck in her apartment as usual. The companies production had wrapped a few weeks ago and they had moved on to the Nutcracker for the annual Christmas production. She was cast as a flower and snowflake and while she was excited, she couldn’t help but feel complete and total sadness all the time.  
At least it wasn’t affecting her dancing. Well, it was in a way. Her dance choreographer said she danced with more feeling and fluidity, full of much more emotion than normal which was an improvement but one caused by depression. She missed her family, her friends, Wesley most of all. She cursed herself for not writing him and now it seemed like it was too late.  
She realised it was Thanksgiving and all her friends back home were probably eating with each other and having a grand time while in France it was just an average Thursday. As she prepared a few pairs of her pointe shoes she thought of everyone back home, and how they must be doing. Along with his silky brown hair, his tanned skin that was probably fading by now, wide eyes, and-  
Crap. She was thinking about Wes again. Mari scrambled over to her wallet and pulled out the small polaroid she had taken of him back when they were in Zakynthos. He was sitting in the sun, face turned towards her and had a bright smile on his face. His hair was pushed back by a bandana and sand was all over his forehead and chest. He had on the small European swim trunks and everything.   
Mari felt like she was going to cry as she looked at the photo. She really, truly missed him and wanted to make everything right again and go back to how things used to be. She wanted to get an education and go to UCLA again. Ballet was something she had given up a long time ago and remembered why she gave it up.   
It took her away from the things she loved most and the person she wanted to be.   
But she would stay, just until Nutcracker had finished and then she would go home and stay there. Because she had left something very important back home, her Wesley.


	18. Finally Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thanks for the feedback but please let me know what you want me to write next out of the 3 options I left in the notes at the beginning of last chapter. Don't forget to leave feedback and thank you for all the support!

The sun was still shining despite the fact it was getting a little brisk outside, but Wes didn’t mind because he had been enduring the freezing fall weather of NYC and had missed the sun. He had been so used to being constantly surrounded by tall buildings for the past few months he forgot what a relatively open landscape had looked like. While the plane had left him with a stiff neck, he was happy to be back home considering the last time we had been in LA was back in early June.  
It was almost December now and because Thanksgiving had just wrapped up everyone was moving on to bigger and better things, aka Christmas. Even the radio was starting to play the annoying songs with all the bells and overly catchy lyrics that he could hardly stand, and that was just during the taxi ride home from the airport.   
When he arrived home he was greeted with warm and welcoming hugs from his parents along with a nice home cooked meal. He ate it quickly and afterwards he unpacked all his belongings. He had bought more clothes than he realised in New York, considering he arrive there with very much, and made sure to pack all his trinkets from Europe into a small wooden box he had bought from a marketplace late into his trip. It was a Turkish puzzle box that was quite large and if he slid specific parts of the wood it would reveal the key that would be able to lock and unlock the hidden latch on the box. On top was a carving of two fish, and inside held some of the post cards and things he had bought during his travels.   
After unpacking the rest of his things and setting aside the certain souvenirs he had bought for his LA friends, he unlocked the puzzle box to see what he had inside. First he pulled out some polaroids he had taken in Italy and the white beaches of Zakynthos, some shells, rubble from the ruins, and finally some more polaroids. But these ones were different, these ones were of him and Mari.  
Wes had completely forgotten all the pictures they had taken back there and remembered having to almost constantly buy film for the camera. The photos were sometimes just of him or just of Mari, but for the most part it was of the two of them in the various places they had visited. The top of the Eiffel tower, beaches, ruins, beautiful fields that they camped in, they were stunning. He could also track the changes he went through during his trip. His hair slowly growing to the point where he just cut it all off and had a crew cut, his skin getting tanned, how much leaner he had gotten. Thankfully during his time in New York he started to look a little more like his normal self because of the lack of sun and his hair growing out just a little bit. It still wasn’t nearly as long as it had been in high school, if anything it was closer to Damien’s hair length, but he still felt a little more like himself.  
He wondered if that’s why he and Mari broke up. Perhaps they lost a part of themselves in Europe, he looked nothing like he had before and she was acting different. He wished he could get a second chance, but now he wondered if he would ever see her again.   
Brushing those sad thoughts aside, Wes chose to take a shower because he still smelled like the airplane. After that he just went to bed because the warmth of the shower made him realise how absolutely exhausted he was. He had a big day ahead of himself anyways, in the morning he planned on visiting the college to go over his schedule for the next semester and he planned on applying for a job for the postal service again. He already had so much experience in NYC he didn’t see why he shouldn’t do it again.

+++

It felt exactly like old times, well almost exactly. Everyone was back in Wes’ basement having a small get together and while only half the team was there it was still filled with nostalgia and laughter. They raided the gas station as per usual, hit up the record shop, and were now playing all the music they had bought while sitting on the floor eating various candies and telling Wes all the things he had missed in the past few months.   
Noah and Keith had finally decided on what to study in college. Both wanted to become EMTs and their community college had a great program already so there wasn’t any need to transfer somewhere else. Wes also got to meet Pam, Ian’s new girlfriend and she seemed super cool and fun and he was happy that Ian was having a good time at school with Anthony. Courtney mentioned something about wanting to study abroad so she could get some travel experience like her sister and Flitz seemed pretty contempt with his job as a repairman for AC units. He wanted to save up as much as possible and possibly start his own business one day. While everyone was in the midst of picking out the next vinyl, Wes made sure to pull Courtney aside and give her the letters Olivia had written.   
“Here,” he said with a small smile, “I made a promise I would deliver them in person. She was pretty insistent so they must be pretty special.” Courtney held the small stack of letters encased in a rubber band. Each had her name and address written on the back and some of the edges of the envelopes seemed weathered. “I think she must’ve written a few of them a while ago and maybe never sent them.”  
“But why not send them?” Courtney asked confused, almost hurt. Wes just placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gave her another smile.  
“Love is scary and maybe she just needed a little push.” He stated.  
“And what was the push?” She asked.  
“Probably the fact that even though Mari and I had been so strong we still messed up due to a lack of communication and mistrust. She probably realised that maybe what the two of you had was pretty nice and wanted to try again, I know I would if I had the chance.” And with that he left Courtney’s side and rejoined the group. The blonde looked down at the letters again, this time a little more hopeful, and placed them in her purse to read later. 

+++

_Dear Courtney,_  
Courtney paused for a moment. She was sitting on her bed in the middle of the night and the lamplight was the only thing illuminating the room. She mentally prepared herself for what these letters might have in store. Olivia had put the dates on the front of the envelope, she always did that for some reason, so it was easy to see that she definitely had written a few of these quite a while ago. The first one was in late July, shortly after she had left for NYC and right after she had broken up with Courtney.  
_Dear Courtney,_  
_I really miss you, like a lot. And I know it’s all my fault that I miss you because I was the one who proposed the idea of breaking up but now that I’m here in New York I really regret leaving you in that cafe and calling the quits. You looked so disappointed while I kept brushing things off like it was nothing and I shouldn’t of done that because that’s not what a girlfriend or even a friend should ever do to anyone they care about. I’m sorry, I really am, and I really hope things will go great for you at school._  
_Love,_  
_Olivia_

_Dear Courtney,_  
_School just started. I like all my classes but college is so different from high school I wonder if I’ll ever be able to keep up. Everyone in my classes, and even all our friends are so much smarter than me it’s ridiculous. The least I can do is make sure I get all my homework done, even if I don’t understand it properly. Hopefully things will turn out okay in the end._  
_At least everyone else is happy. I am to an extent but Shayne and Damien are really enjoying themselves here and Shayne is starting to come out of his shell a bit more which is nice. Living with Joslyn and Lily is also super fun. We have girls nights and Joslyn tells me all about this cute guy in one of her classes while Lily rolls her eyes hysterically. Boze had gotten really good at cooking and on Sundays sometimes we do meal prep which is fun._  
_But I miss you, and that’s the only things that’s been on my mind as of late._  
_Love,_  
_Olivia_

_Dear Courtney,_  
_Shayne I haven’t written in quite a while but the past few weeks have been scary and I need a way to get my feelings out. Basically, Shayne had a panic attack on Halloween and since then we’ve all been tip-toeing around him which I can tell has been bothering him. But I don’t know what to do, how do I deal with something like this? He looked like he was dying as he hyperventilated on the floor in a back room of a club._  
_Since then we invited him over for a girls night type thing but while that was fun all I did was think about you, I hope you miss me as much as I miss you because I’m trying not to come off as pathetic but maybe that’s all I am. With finals coming up everyone has been studying their asses off which has made stress levels come up even more than usual._  
_Love,_  
_Olivia_

Courtney had to stop herself because she felt like she was going to cry. Olivia seemed like she was falling apart and no one was even realising it, or maybe they were but who knows. But a part of her felt sort of relieved that she was feeling the same way. Courtney had become quite distant ever since she had left and now there was hope that they could try again even if it meant they had to be long distance. She tucked herself into bed and turned off the lamp, she could read the rest of the letters later. But at least she could go to bed feeling a little bit at peace, Christmas really needed to get a move on so her girlfriend would come home.


	19. Study Time

Noah adjusted the large glasses that were resting on his nose. Finals were gonna kick his ass if he didn’t study enough and his math class had been killing him all semester. He and Keith had finally figured out what there were gonna do with their lives and stepped out of the undecided program to sign up for the EMT program the school offered. Both enjoyed the anatomy and physiology class they had taken the past semester together and their teacher suggested emergency services. Hopefully they would enjoy it because going in undecided was such a stressful decision, everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.   
His room was illuminated solely by his lamp and as he sat huddled at his desk, Keith had all his study material sprawled out on the bed. Keith was also smoking a small blunt causing Noah to get second hand high, his friend claimed it helped him focus. Noah was brought back to high school days when he and Keith would smoke on the regular during late night study sessions and parties at Wes’ house. _Those were the days_ he thought to himself as he flipped past some equations in his textbook.  
“Dude I’ve been looking at these formulas for the past few hours and I feel like I’ve finally made some progress.” Keith said while he rubbed his eyes and threw some of his study materials on the bed. His eyes felt strained from looking at the same numbers and letters and symbols for the past few hours and all he wanted to do was take a nap. “We need to get the hell out of here and take a break Noah.” He said as he finished the rest of his blunt and snuffed out the rest in a small ashtray on Noah’s nightstand.  
“Our final for math is on Monday! We’ve gotta study all weekend or we’ll fail!” Noah insisted as Keith tried to pry him away from the desk.   
“Noah it’s like eight PM and we’ve been at it since we got back at 11 AM, I’m hungry and my eyes hurt. Neither of us will be able to actually retain the information we’re processing. That’s science I think Sarah told me that once.” Keith said as he finally ripped Noah out of his desk chair. Noah rolled his eyes as Keith chucked his jacket into his arms and grabbed the keys to Damien’s car which were sitting on the desk.  
Keith drove towards the diner and bopped his head along to some of the jazz tuned playing over the stereo. It was much nicer to be focusing on the open road rather than a stupid math textbook he had been reading all semester. Thank god anatomy was so much easier, that was an easy type of memorization and he had gotten really good at drawing slides with skin cells on it. Noah was sitting in the passenger seat, fiddling with a loose thread on his pants. Keith knew his friend would loosen up soon once they got to the diner. He parked the car and Noah reluctantly stepped out and both headed into the diner.   
“Late as always!” A voice shouted. Noah looked over and his face melted into a smile. There in their signature booth were all his friends who looked just as tired as he was probably because they had all been studying or working on final projects.  
“I called them because I knew they were all in the same boat as us, figured you might wanna see someone who had a face that wasn’t mine.” Keith explained as he slid into the booth behind Noah. Noah just nudged his friends arm and ordered a plain cheeseburger and a chocolate shake for himself.   
Joven was rubbing his eye profusely and explained how exhausting some of his physics work had been getting. “Ya know, I never thought I would get to the point that I hate movement. Movement of all things! I can’t even walk across the room without subconsciously calculating the velocity at which I’m traveling.” Wes scoffed and called him a nerd and took a ginormous bite out of his turkey club.  
Tanner explained the basis of his photography project he had to complete, he was still in the process of developing his photos and hoped to get a nice album to put them in. He had to capture abstract images of LA which he said was “Nearly impossible, hopefully my photos of street art and night life will suffice.”  
“God has anyone spoken to the guys over in NYC?” Ian asked.  
“I made sure to call Boze’s apartment this week, my family has some type of phone plan that allows out of state calls and it seemed like they were all feeling the same type of stress yall are feeling. They’ll be back for Christmas after next week so it’ll all be cool and they’re bringing their new friend Drew as well so that will be cool.” Wes explained. Everyone nodded and started talking about anything and everything that wasn’t school.

+++

Shayne was lying in the bed he shared with Damien. The brunette was already curled up against his side fast asleep while he just laid awake, nervous thoughts clouding his mind. He really tried suppressing them, hold them down like he always did, but before he realised it they were pouring out of him and he had no control. His breathing became erratic and he was starting to feel exactly how he felt in the club that night on Halloween.  
“Hey, hey,” a soothing voice said in a hushed tone. It was Damien who had just woken up and his voice was still muffled and half asleep. “I’m here okay dude, I’m right next to you and everything is alright.” He flipped Shayne over so they were facing one another and Shayne’s blue eyes pierced into his brown ones. The blonds breathing calmed down a little bit and Damien wiped some of the sweat that was forming on his shoulders and forehead. “You wanna talk?” He asked, Shayne nodded his head a bit and waited for his breathing to calm down a bit more.   
“I guess I’m just a little nervous, you know?” Shayne whispered after a few minutes. “Like, when I left LA things weren’t really on the best terms with my parents considering they didn’t really take my whole coming out thing very well. I haven’t really written them and they haven’t written me since we’ve been here and now I’m wondering how awkward it will be when we go back in a week.” Damien nodded his head and brushed his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair. “Like what if they hate me?” He asked.  
“They don’t hate you, it’s impossible for them to hate you because you’re they’re son okay.” He reassured. Shayne nodded a little and brushed some hair out of his eyes and ran his hands over his face. “You can stay with me and my mom for the first night if you want. She’s excited to see you so don’t worry about anything and she’s gonna buy us ice cream in case we wake up at three in the morning and want to eat some just like old times.” Shayne smiled and Damien tickled his shoulder which caused the blond to giggle a bit.  
“You think it’s gonna be alright?” Shayne asked.  
“Yeah, it’s gonna be perfect.” Damien replied. He started tickling Shayne again which made both of them go into fits of laughter. The bed creaked and the sheets started tangling around their waists as they fought and wrestled one another on the small bed in the corner of the room.  
“Oh my god!” A voice shouted from across the hall, both boys immediately stopped moving and waited in complete silence. “Can y'all shut the _fuck_ up? I’m trying to sleep and it’s like one in the damn morning and the two of y'all are awake!” Boze shouted from across the hall. Both boys burst out laughing immediately.  
“Stop laughing you idiots! We’ve got finals coming up and I’m trying to get all the shut eye I can! It’s bad enough I have to spend every waking hour studying, I shouldn’t have to spend my sleeping hours listening to you two almost fuck right next door!”


	20. Christmas Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thank you so much for reading and I'm so happy that you seemed to enjoy this story. I already have the next one planned and hopefully this gave you guys some satisfaction as to what happened with the team in this 80's AU. Thank you for giving Who Knew over 3000 hits, it really means the world to me that you would take time out of your day to read the words I put together. You guys are all amazing and I hope my work continues to please you guys.

Shayne and Damien came home to see Damien’s old car parked neatly in his driveway. The brunette let out a loud shout filled with joy as he opened the door and plopped down in the driver's seat. Shayne rolled his eyes, sometimes his boyfriend could be such an incredibly huge dork. Damien gushed over his car for a few more moments but soon Shayne ushered him inside so they could greet his mother.  
Damien’s mom was one of the nicest people in the world. She gave Shayne a warm hug and lead them to the kitchen where she had already made them a nice dinner. They both ate happily and as Damien chatted with his mother and told him all about the finance classes he was taking at NYU, Shayne’s eyes ended up wandering out the window where we saw his house across the street. His parents probably knew he was back in town already, maybe they even saw him in Damien’s driveway. He sucked in a sharp breath and returned his attention back to his food.  
As Damien helped his mother clean Shayne whispered he was going to go try and give his parents a visit. His boyfriend nodded and Shayne left quietly and walked across the street. His hands shook nervously as he gave two firm knocks on the door. There was silence for a few moments but soon he heard shuffling and he was greeted with his mother opening the door, a slightly jarred expression on her face. “H-Hey mom.” He said quietly. They looked at one another for a few moments until she ushered him inside.   
He sat down on the sofa in the living room, somehow it felt so awkward even though he was in his own home, sitting on the same couch he had sat on numerous times before. He heard his mother doing something in the kitchen and soon she popped back in the living room with a cup in her hand. “Um, I poured you a soda, in case you were thirsty.” She said, Shayne took it from her hands and noted how she tried to avoid contact.   
“Where’s dad?” Shayne asked.   
“He’s,” His mother paused for a moment, “out at the moment.” Shayne nodded, realising what ‘out’ meant. He continued talking to his mother in awkward conversation until he noticed the time. It was seven thirty and he had to be somewhere by eight. “Before you go Shayne, your father and I made sure to remember your Christmas gift.” She handed him two boxes tightly wrapped in paper. Shayne smiled and reached for his satchel he brought.  
“Oh yeah, I made sure to get you guys something as well but I figured I would give them to you guys on Thursday which is actual Christmas you know.” Shayne said with a smile, his mothers face faltered a bit which caused his chest to get tight.  
“Your father made plans with some friends out of town so that’s where we’ll be.” She said simply. Shayne nodded, handed his mother the Christmas gifts he had bought in New York, and said goodbye. He could try again maybe towards the end of his holiday break or maybe next summer. But he left his house intact because he had someplace better to be anyways.

+++

“So nostalgic right? Feels like the last time we were here was ages ago!” Damien said excitedly as he pulled his car in Wes’ driveway. Shayne agreed and they climbed out and carried the shopping bags from the grocery store to the front door where Damien rang the doorbell several times. Wes answered it, happy to see them even though it had only been a few weeks since he left New York, and lead them inside to the back of the house where the reunion party seemed to be in full swing.  
Shayne smiled when he saw the familiar faces of his friends. Ian gave him a huge hug and introduced him to Pam and Anthony gave him a firm handshake. Courtney was happy to see him but he could tell she was still waiting on Olivia to make an appearance. Even Noah and Keith were there on time and Damien thanked them for taking such good care of his car for the past couple of months. Tanner and Sarah were chatting away with Boze in the corner while David and Matt were talking to Flitz excitedly.   
Courtney watched her friends happily but the second the doorbell rang she pounced on the opportunity to answer it with hopes it was Olivia finally arriving. Her prayers were answered when she opened the door and saw the beautiful face and raven locks of the girl she was in love with. They smiled at one another and fell into a warm embrace that ended in a loving kiss. Courtney practically dragged Olivia inside and started talking like nothing changed. They sat on the couch, Olivia practically in Courtney’s lap, and both decided maybe they should try long distance for the next semester.   
Wes was happy to see everyone all together again and was excited to get started at UCLA. As he grabbed a refill on his beer in the kitchen he heard a familiar roar of an old pickup truck in his driveway. _It couldn’t be._ He thought to himself as he tried to nullify all the nerves that were going batshit crazy in his body. He ended up standing by the front door for five minutes, waiting for the possibility of someone knocking on it.   
“You can do this. You can do this.” Mari chanted to herself as she shut off the ignition in her truck and forced her body to slide of out the seat. He ran her fingers through her hair that was freshly dyed purple and gripped the stack of papers she was holding. “He might hate you, he might not but it’s better safe than sorry.” She murmured as she walked up the front porch. The second before her fist met the wood of the door it swung open, revealing a much more pale Wes who seemed to be growing out his hair again.  
“Hey.” He said under his breath, just loud enough for Mari to hear him. She gulped and could hear the music blasting from the back of the house.  
“Hey.” She said back. He took note of her appearance. The dyed hair, black overalls, ratty band t-shirt that he hadn’t seen since high school. Wes smiled and stepped outside, closing his front door quietly behind him. “I’m done with ballet.” Mari said loudly, “For good this time. Ballet can eat my ass.” She proclaimed, not caring if any of the neighbors heard her. She showed him the acceptance letters from UCLA, she would start in January just like him and her major was physical therapy.   
“I’m sorry.” Wes said, he reached her her hand and ran his thumb over her fingers which sent shivers down Mari’s spine. “I said so many things in Paris that were despicable and I never should’ve left you there alone. I’m a horrible boyfriend and friend in general.” He hung his head and tried to push back the tears that were forming. Mari wiped away the tears that fell down his cheeks and made him look at her.   
“I never should’ve done what I did. I should’ve communicated better, we both should’ve communicated better.” She smiled at him and he smiled back. “Maybe we could, I donno, try again? But this time we should try talking a bit more and maybe talk about feelings.”  
“I’d like that.” Wes said, he pulled Mari in and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “God I missed you so much.” He whispered as he hugged her tightly, scared that she might disappear. She laughed into his shoulder and soon after they joined the party and everyone greeted Mari as if nothing ever happened.   
Christmas came a couple of days later and after everyone spent their mornings with their families they all joined each other back at Wes’ house to share presents and listen to many, many vinyls on the record player. Everyone was overjoyed to be back with each other and in those moments they acted like they did back in high school, not a single worry in the world of what their future would hold.


End file.
